


Beyond the Looking-Glass

by WingBlade1357



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Diasomnia, Gen, Heartslabyul, Ignihyde, NRC, Night Raven College, Octavinelle, Pomefiore, Savanaclaw, Scarabia, slight crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-02-23 13:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 44,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23545351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingBlade1357/pseuds/WingBlade1357
Summary: A different world, yet so similar to the ones she knew. Everything she faced and knew were just a mere legend in Twisted Wonderland. A mysterious world filled with wonder, with fantasy, with dangers. Her mission starts within the prestigious academy, Night Raven College.Careful.In the Villains’ world, there is more than meets the eye.
Comments: 150
Kudos: 492





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for giving this story a try! This story will focus on my KH OC, Hikari’s adventures. It has a few KH elements like the Heartless, Keyblade, Darkness and all that. But don’t worry! I will explain every new term so you won’t get confused.
> 
> Hikari in this story is 17-18 years old. Basically, she’s supposed to be a third year, but for this mission, she faked her age and joined the first years instead. If you guys are interested in Hikari’s stories, please feel free to visit my DA and my ff account, though I might post the stories here as well.
> 
> Twisted Wonderland is a new game and there are so many things we don’t know as well. So, I will also base it on my own version and ideas! Like this chapter, it’s based from the prologue, but I also added and changed a lot of things.

Chapter 1  
Welcome to the Villains’ World

* * *

_My beloved and beautiful flower of evil_   
_You are the most beautiful in the world_

* * *

  
“There you are,” A voice was heard in greeting, combined with the footsteps that echoed within the hallway. “I’m glad I could catch up to you before your departure.” 

  
The brunette greeted the young man with a grin. “Ienzo! We saw each other like half an hour ago.” She remarked jokingly and the young man replied with a chuckle. Her eyes caught the book that was tucked beneath his arm. It was no ordinary notebook judging by how thick it was. “Are you heading to the library?” She asked.

  
Ienzo grabbed the book from under his arm and offered it for the girl to take. “Actually, this book is for you.” He replied, a smile appearing on his lips. The brunette took the red covered book, checking the title and an amused hum left her lips. “I heard about your new mission. I thought this would be quite useful.” He folded his arms over his chest, the same smile still on his lips.

“ _Advance Potions Making_... You do know that I’m attending as a first-year, right?” The brunette gave him a teasing look, but accepted the book nonetheless. “They don’t teach these until you’re a third or fourth year.” 

Ienzo shrugged. “You’ve learned the basic from Merlin. It doesn’t hurt to stand out, now does it?” He said as his lips twitched up to form a smirk. 

“Touché.”

A soft sigh escaped the young man’s lips. “I never would’ve thought I see the day you’ll accept a mission such as this. You were always trying to avoid studying.” He placed a hand on his chin, a face full of thoughts and doubts.

The brunette lightly slapped the book on the young man’s arm. “I feel offended. I learned plenty much on theories and recipes these past few years.” She huffed, puffing her cheeks out childishly. She placed a hand on her hip, raising her chin up proudly. “You’re looking at a whole new me!”

“Yes, yes, forgive me—oh, great Keyblade Master.” Ienzo did a mock bow, chuckling as the girl gave another light slap with the book. He could see the change within the girl as she strived to be a better keyblade wielder. Before and after the Mark of Mastery Exam, she would do her best in her studies and training. All of her hard work finally paid off, she was now dubbed as a Keyblade Master.

“Don’t say that. We’re friends. It feels weird when you say it.” The keyblade wielder gave a deadpan look, inching away from her friend.

“Right.” The young man laughed. He raised his hand, offering a good old handshake before they part ways. “Good luck, Hikari.”  
  
Hikari happily shook his hand. “Thanks! And thank you too for the book.”

They smiled at each other.

“See you later then, Ienzo.” 

* * *

_Mirror, mirror on the wall_   
_Who is the best—_   
_Guided by the mirror of darkness_   
_If you ever so desire, take thy hand that lies within the mirror_

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x- 

“—the last of it!”

Dire Crowley hummed in approval. “Thank you for your hard work.” He thanked the ghosts that helped carry the caskets to the Mirror Chamber. The casket floated above ground, guided by the ghost to be placed within the others in the Mirror Chamber. “Ah, this year we have a lot of young students chosen by the Mirror of Darkness.” he tapped his walking cane on the ground as he made his way towards the entrance of the building.

“All 211 immature and troublesome young men.” A fellow teacher beside him heaved out a heavy sigh. 211 was not a small number. It was far larger than last year’s enrollment number. The cat in his arms meowed loudly and he brushed his hand over its back. “I do hope the students are disciplined enough. I do not tolerate laziness.” He scoffed.

The Headmaster fixed his hat, “Then I suppose it is our role as teachers to guide the young ones.” He said to which was replied with a small sigh. 

A paper neatly clipped together floated a few inches beside the Headmaster’s head. “Here you go, Headmaster! The list of the newbies’ names!” The ghost said rather enthusiastically.

“Thank you.” The Headmaster politely thanked the ghost before it disappeared. The papers fell into his hand. The claw rings creased the papers a little bit, but it didn’t matter—he could still read the names as clear as daylight. He tucked his cane under his arm and skimmed through the papers, looking briefly at the names listed. He stopped for a moment, stopping on page three. “Hmm? Such an odd name this young man has.”

_Hikari_

There was no middle name, no family name. Just his given name.

Just _Hikari_.

How peculiar...

What does it mean?

* * *

_Flames that turn even the stars to ashes_   
_Ice that imprison even time_   
_Great tree that swallow even the sky_   
_Show no fear to the power of darkness_   
_Come now, show your power._

* * *

_Click click_

_Thump_

_Thump_

_Click_

"...that sound...” Hikari groggily woke up from her forced slumber. It was pitch black and the room she was confined in was small. There wasn’t a lot of space for her to move. She brought her hand to her eyes, trying to rub the sleepiness away. She took a deep breath. How long has she been asleep? Was it time to start her mission? She sighed in annoyance when there was a banging noise again. “I can’t think with that noise—!” She clicked her tongue as the noise became louder each second.

“Darn! People will come soon!”

The voice was slightly muffled, probably from the other side of the door.

“I have to wear the uniform—and fast!”

_Thump thump_

The brunette stayed still, not complete awake, yet very aware someone was trying to open the door where she was in. 

There was a loud grunt. “This lid is so heavy! If it comes to this... I’m gonna have to use my last resort!”

Hikari raised an eyebrow when nothing happened in the next few seconds. _‘Did they give up already?’_ She placed her hand on the door and closed her palm, planning to knock on it to inform whoever was on the other side. 

Before she knocked, she felt the rise in temperature. The door was warm and she could feel the entire room she was confined in was getting warm and stuffy. 

_Bang_

The door fell off its hinges with a loud noise.

“Well then! Now let’s get—HUH?!” The attacker jumped back in surprise when he saw the person’s eyes were wide awake. It raised a shaky paw, pointing its claws at the brunette who was equally as surprised. “Why are you awake?! You should be asleep!”

Hikari stepped out of the casket, giving a look. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but who wouldn’t wake up from that racket?” She huffed, keeping her distance with the enemy. It wasn’t what she considered as an evil villain. It was a cat, a cat with blue flames coming out from its ears. A cat, but it was bigger than any normal cat, a racoon perhaps. It looked similar to the Underworld’s Ruler, Hades. “Is there a reason for you to try and steam me alive, you little demon-racoon?” She crossed her arms, pouting.

The demon-racoon gasped, an offended look across its’ face. “How dare you! I’m not a racoon!” It shouted angrily, stomping his back left leg on the floor. The blue flames burst out from his ears in furry at the new nickname. “I am the great Lord Grim, y’know!? Treat me with respect, you pitiful human!”

Hikari held the urge to roll her eyes. 

The demon-racoon began to ran on all fours towards her. “Enough chit-chat! Gimme those clothes! Or else I’ll roast you!” 

“Excuse me!” Hikari pulled a look as she positioned herself to a fighting stance. “That’s a rude thing to ask!” She stepped aside and let the demon-racoon jump into the empty casket behind her.

“Gyahh!” The demon-racoon exclaimed when it face-planted to the cushioned casket. 

As quickly as she can, she placed the broken lid back onto the casket. She jumped back and raised her hand. In one swift movement, a weapon appeared in her hand. The keyblade. She raised the keyblade to the casket, pointing it to the keyhole on the lid. A bright light emitted from the tip of her blade and it shot a ray of light. A click was heard.

The brunette gave a satisfied smirk. She summoned the blade away and not a second later, she was immediately regretting her choice to use the keyblade in an unknown territory. It wasn’t necessarily forbidden for her to use the keyblade in this world—Yen Sid never said so. She was advised not to until she can confirm it was safe for a keyblade wielder in the Villains’ World. 

After all, the school she was attending was based on the powerful seven villains. 

The casket began to shake, rocking side to side. “Lemme out! Lemme out! How dare you, human!” The demon-racoon banged on the lid, but with its little paws, it didn’t make much noise. 

Hikari let out a short laugh. “I’ll let you out once you cooled down.” She knocked on the lid twice to make the shaking stop. “At the meantime, think about what you’ve done.” She said.

The shaking continued, more violently this time. “You little—!!!”

Hikari ignored the demon-racoon inside the casket. She tuned out the noise as best as she can. She looked around, observing the floating caskets around the chamber, some were floating and some were on the floor. The room was large and could hold up to probably more than a couple of hundreds. There were foldable chairs set up in the chamber—probably matching the number of students in the caskets.   
  
She heard about the entrance ceremony briefly from her master. Only special students are allowed to be enrolled if they have the potential to become a great mage. 

It was because of Yen Sid’s powerful magic that she could enroll in the prestigious school. 

_‘What time is it?’_ Hikari hummed, trying to look for a clock. Instead of just waiting for someone to arrive, she planned to explore the school on her own. She glanced back and forth between the door and the demon-racoon. _‘Eh, I can make it back in time.’_ She grinned to herself and headed straight for the door.

In the large room full of caskets, only one was awake.

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“It’s time to let out our cute kouhais~” a voice cheerfully said in a sing-song voice.

“But we have a lot of new students this year... It’s no wonder Headmaster Crowley asked us to help.” Another voice added.

“Right?” The first voice, the ginger-haired man replied, waving the key around. “It’s going to take forever if it’s just done by one person.” 

“That’s when your unique magic comes in handy.” The second voice chuckled softly. 

The ginger-haired man grinned. “Bingo~! Anything to help out our dear dorm leader and our wonderful headmaster~” 

The second voice crossed his arms, giving a teasing look. “Are you sure you’re not doing this for extra credit, Cater?” 

Cater gave an offended look. “Trey! How could you!” He placed his hand over his chest rather dramatically, feigning his hurt feelings. 

“Stop fooling around you two! We don’t have much time to loiter around!” A voice shouted at them both. 

The bespectacled man gave a sheepish look as he pushed his glasses up. “Sorry, Riddle.” he apologized.

“Sorry, sorry!” Cater laughed with an apologetic look, clasping his hands together in front of his face with the keys in between his palms. The noise inside the Mirror Chamber grew louder and louder as one by one, the new students were let out from their caskets. “Let’s do this! Split Card!” In a blink of an eye, the young man multiplied into four—including the real one.

“Alright! You two take the one on the right. You’ll help Riddle and we’ll take the ones over here.” Cater began to give the keys out to his doubles and each replied cheerfully before going towards the direction they were instructed. “Which one do you want to open first, Trey? Oh! How about this one? The little kid looks like he’s already awake!” He pointed to the casket that was shaking.

Trey blinked as he looked at the casket. The boy inside was indeed wide awake, otherwise how could the casket shake so violently.

“This one’s sure is lively!” Cater sweat dropped as he approached the casket. he knocked on the lid twice. “Hey there! Wait just a second, okay? Your senpai is going to unlock—” as soon as he turned the key, the lid fell down, hanging on one of its hinges.

“W—Whoa!?” Cater lost his footing and fell down in surprise when something jumped out. His loud exclamation made the whole room stop what they were doing and turn to look at him. 

“Cater!” Trey quickly helped his friend up, staring at the boy that came out. “Hey, it’s impolite to—huh?”

“Where is that human?! Where is it?!” A small animal—a small talking animal was standing there, looking around the room furiously. Its eyes met with Trey and Carter before it darted towards the door angrily, running in between peoples’ legs. It exited through the door the moment someone came in. “Grrr!” 

Its random appearance stunned almost everyone.

“What... just happened?” 

“Was that an animal? From the casket?”

“An... animal... as a student here?”

Cater blinked, “That was a talking racoon, right?”

“I’m... not sure.” 

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“—”

“—Octavinelle!”

The Headmasters stood beside the Magic Mirror, holding a list of students in his hand. As soon as the Octavinelle student left the chair in front of the mirror, he called the next student up to the front.

“Will the student, Mr. Hikari, come forward?”

Silence.

A few seconds passed and there were already murmurs and whispers among the students.

Headmaster Crowley cleared his throat, “Will the student, Mr. Hikari, come forward?” He repeated, but alas the student never came to the front, let alone stand up from wherever they sat. He turned to one of the dorm leaders closest to him. “Ashengrotto, would you stand here in my place as I look for the missing student?” He said as he offered the list.

Azul Ashengrotto placed a hand over his chest, bowing his head respectfully. “Why, of course, Headmaster Crowley!” 

“Will the student, Mr. Jack Howl, come forward?” 

  
A tall young man walked down the aisle towards the mirror as the Headmaster walked the opposite direction. He walked around the room to exit the Mirror Chamber.

  
The door closed behind him with a soft click.

  
The Headmaster tapped his cane on the floor, tipping his hat up a little bit.

  
“Well then, where have you ran off to, Mr. Hikari?”

* * *

_Mine, theirs, and yours_   
_There's only little time left for us_   
_Do not let go of the hand at all cost_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a few things that I change from the main plot of TW!
> 
> And there is a few artwork that I drew for this chapter. It was the drawing the lead me to finally decide to write this story!

Chapter 2  
Hikari of the Ramshackle Dorm

* * *

—A few days ago, The Mysterious Tower—

“A world… of _what_ now?”

Hikari stood in front of Yen Sid’s desk. Surprise was written across her face when she heard the news. She was hanging out with the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee when Merlin told her to go to the Mysterious Tower. She expected another mission, sure. But she never expected the shocking news. 

Yen Sid exhaled softly. “According to a legend in that world, there once lived grand beings collectively known as the Great Seven. In a better term that we know, the Council of Villains who once seek the power of Kingdom Hearts.” The wise old wizard was standing beside the moon-shaped window, staring out to gaze at the stars. Hikari waited for him to continue, the information she heard wasn’t enough to conclude anything. She knew he was hinting for her to go to said world. “I have sought counsel with the stars to predict the conditions of the present and the future.” He turned to look at the brunette.

Hikari nodded her head. “I got it.” She gave him thumbs up and a smile. She gave a small frown as she crossed her arms. “A world of villains—there must be something fishy going on in there, right?”

Yen Sid made his way back to his chair. “It is not a world solemnly of villains.” He said and the brunette gave a nod again. Of course, even in a dark world, there was always some good inside of it. “Rather than real villains, the Great Seven are only a mere legend—hailed as powerful beings in myths.” 

The Keyblade Master hummed in thought. “I can actually see why… Maleficent and the others are not just some random magician.” The dragon witch and her minions were always a handful to handle. Aside from the others, the only villain she never directly faced was the Evil Queen from Dwarf Woodlands. “Don’t worry, Master Yen Sid. I’ll deal with it.”

Yen Sid nodded, confident that his successor's pupil will succeed. “Though, rather than just facing it straight on, I want you to attend college and investigate from there.” 

Hikari blinked confusedly. “College…?” She voiced her confusion. She heard it right, right? Yen Sid was asking her to attend college. In a way, she doesn’t really mind, but she wouldn’t be able to move freely if she was confined with school work. “I don’t mean to question your decision, but college? Really?” 

The great wizard waved his hand and a cosmic cloud began to form. “This college, Night Raven College, is modeled after the Great Seven.” A grand building appeared within the small cloud. Hikari stepped closer, leaning forward to look at the illusion on the table. “Only those who have potential to become a great mage could enroll. I trust your abilities have far exceeded the qualifications.”

Hikari cleared her throat, a bit bashful from the compliment. “Thank you, Master.”

“I believe you’re capable of handling this mission. Evaluate the world if it possesses a threat to others. Set things right before the balance of the worlds are threatened, Master Hikari.”

“Yes, Master.”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

* * *

—Present time—

 _‘—was what Master Yen Sid said, but…’_ Hikari trailed off as she wandered around the school’s halls aimlessly. She looked left and right, trying to find her way back to the room of caskets, but every hall and doors looked the same. ‘ _The mission barely started and I’m going to miss the entrance ceremony…’_ she exhaled loudly, slumping her shoulders.

Night Raven College was larger than she expected. It was dark in some parts and only because of the moonlight and the dimly lit candles that she didn't crash into a wall or any objects. She looked around, staring at the paintings. She couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy at the lack of people. It was as if the paintings were alive and watching her.

 _‘I just hope I can bump into someone and ask for directions…’_ Hikari sighed as she turned to a corner. 

“Gyaah!” An all too familiar voice startled her. 

Hikari took a step back, startled by the loud voice. “Whoa?!” She exclaimed as equally loud. Her eyes trailed down and she scrunched her nose in annoyance. It was that black cat who wanted to steam her to steal her clothes. “Ah! It’s the demon-racoon!” She moved a few steps back, pointing her finger at the cat.

The demon-racoon also pointed its paw at her “Ah! It’s that pesky uniform stealer!” He accused loudly, his voice echoing in the empty hallways. “And how many times do I have to remind you that I’m the great and powerful—Lord Grim!?” It furrowed its brows, glaring and hissing at her.

Hikari dismissed the grand title. “Oh puh-lease! I bet you got out because someone let you, right?” She hit the nail to the coffin as the demon-racoon’s eyes widened. She caught him red-handed and she continued, “And excuse me, _‘uniform stealer’_? Pssh! I’m the one who should say that!” She huffed, pointing her finger back at it.

The demon-racoon smirked. “But this is good timing! You can never run away from me, human! It’s time to pay you back for locking me inside the coffin!” The blue flames on his ears began to grow. He inhaled and aimed his fire at Hikari’s feet. She raised her foot to avoid the fire—to which she quickly put out by stomping on it. “That was a warning shot! Now, if you don’t want to be roasted, give me those clothes!” He blew fire again to prove his point.

Hikari raised her hand to cast a water spell to stop the demon-racoon. “Stop that! You’ll end up burning this whole place down if you keep breathing fire!” She scolded as she put out another fire.

The demon-racoon hissed before he leaped towards the brunette, extending its sharp claws.

Out of nowhere, there was a sound of a cracked whip. 

“Eh?! That hurts! What’s this string?!” The demon-racoon—Grim cried out, struggling to break free from the restraints. 

“It’s not a string! It’s the whip of love!” A voice corrected from the shadows. Hikari eased her posture, but still kept her guard up. The figure came closer—from a mere silhouette to a recognizable person. The glowing yellow eyes behind the black mask covering half of his face. There was no mistake. She realized the person standing before her was Night Raven College’s current Headmaster. “Aah, I finally found you! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He sighed, disappointment written across his face.

Hikari cleared her throat. “Sorry, sir…” she felt partly guilty. She had a choice to stay and wait in the casket room, but she chose to explore the school without anyone’s approval. 

Dire Crowley crossed his arms, though his hold on the whip still firm. “Plus, to have a familiar that you haven’t tamed is against the school rules!” 

Hikari and Grim exchanged disgusted looks at each other. “He’s not—“

“No way! There’s no way I’m this human’s familiar!” Grim hissed at the Headmaster, his tail movil left and right. “Now lemme go!”

Headmaster Crowley brushed off Grim’s complaints. “Yes, yes, every rebellious familiar always says that.” He casually replied as he raised his hand. The golden claw rings made it seem impossible, but he snapped his fingers anyways. “Now, please be quiet and let us converse in peace.” 

Magically, Grim’s loud mouth was zipped. “Mmmgh!”

The Headmaster turned his attention back to the student. “Really. It’s unheard of for a new student to open their door and get out by themselves.” The man stared at the first-year with a small frown. The _‘boy’_ stood with _his_ head down and hands behind _his_ back. It looked like the _boy_ regretted his decision. “How impatient are you? Ah, well, it doesn’t matter. It looks like you’ve learnt your lesson.” He dismissed the thought of punishing the new student. 

“Sorry…” Hikari mumbled another apology. The hood she was wearing hid her expression from the Headmaster. If he saw her slightly annoyed look, she would’ve gotten detention—or worse, expulsion. If it wasn’t for the demon-racoon waking her up, she wouldn’t have gotten in trouble in the first place. 

Crowley ushered the girl forward. “Come, come. The entrance ceremony started long ago! Let us not be late than we already are!” He said as he leaded the way back to the Mirror Chamber. Their footsteps echoed in the dark hallways, along with Grim’s muffled threats.

They passed by the main courtyard and Hikari didn’t even remember passing by such a large courtyard. She looked at the garden with awe. The fireflies around them made the scene more beautiful. Hikari raised her finger when a firefly flew close by. The hum of the Headmaster made her turn her attention back to him.

The Headmaster looked like he was thinking. “Though it is rather strange… Usually, students don’t wake up until we open the door with a special key, but…” his glowing yellow eyes averted to look at the new student.

“Ah, well… The demon-racoon kinda woke me up… I was just wandering around to look for the bathroom.” Hikari lamely lied, trying to find an excuse to cover her mistake. Instead of looking for a bathroom, she was exploring the castle to look at what rooms they have. 

Crowley nodded his head and he placed a hand on his chin. “It seems in the end the main culprit is this familiar. If you brought him here, then it is your responsibility to look after him.”

For a second there, Hikari and Grim made eye contact again. They both gave a look of disgust. “But he’s not my—“

“Oh! We’re here! Now, let’s walk inside.”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“—Now then, are the entrance ceremony and dorm sorting finished?” The red-haired male asked when the last of the first-year have been sorted to a dorm—Heartlabyul at that. He stood there among the other six dorm leaders through the whole dorm sorting ceremony. Before the sorting began, they had to give a speech to the new students, introducing themselves and their dorm. 

The male with glasses nodded his head as he lowered the papers given by the Headmaster. “I believe so.”

“Listen up, new students. I make the rules in Heartlabyul. Anyone who breaks them will lose their heads—do keep that in mind.” The red-haired male—leader of the Heartlabyul dorm said rather sternly with his arms crossed. 

There was a loud yawn from one of the taller prefects. “This boring ceremony is finally done.” He placed a hand on his hip as he looked at the first-years. Truth be told, he couldn’t remember which one is sorted into his dorm. There were just too many newbies. It would be a lot easier for him to tell apart if he could see the animal features—ears and tails. “Let’s get back to the dorm. Savanaclaw, follow me.” The man said.

The male with glasses smiled happily. “To all the new students, I would like to congratulate you on your enrollment here! I hope each and everyone one of you are able to live a fulfilling school life!” He took a step forward. He might seem smiling, but the smile didn’t quite match his feelings. He folded his arms over his chest. “As the dorm leader of Octavinelle, I will support you as best as I can!”

The prefect beside him hummed. “Speaking of which, where did the Headmaster go? He walked out in the middle of the ceremony.” He remembered the man speaking to his colleague before walking out of the room.

Before the dorm leader of Octavinelle could answer, the dorm leader of Ignihyde spoke up. _“He abandoned his duties…”_

The dorm leader of Ignihyde wasn’t present in the entrance ceremony, but rather his vice dorm leader was. The vice dorm leader was holding a tablet with the dorm leader speaking from it. 

The prefect of Scarabia crossed his hands behind his head with a carefree look. “Heh~ maybe he had a stomachache and has to go to the bathroom?” He suggested. 

The door burst open.

“That is incorrect!” Crowley barges inside the Mirror Chamber with a student following him from behind. 

The dorm leader of Heartlabyul blinked, “Oh, he’s here.” His eyes then wandered to the smaller figure beside the Headmaster.

The Headmaster along with the robed figure walked across the aisle with everyone’s eyes and attention on them. The _boy_ who walked behind the Headmaster was weird in a sense to them. _His_ hood was tucked down so deep, it would be difficult for a normal person to walk and see at the same time. It was hard to see _his_ face with the way _he_ was looking down, keeping _his_ face hidden.

Hikari raised her head just a little and she tried her best not to yell and point at the mirror, or else it would ruin her cover. The Magic Mirror on the other hand seemed to recognize her as well. 

_‘It’s you!!’_

Crowley approached the Octavinelle dorm leader. “Honestly, we were one student short! So I left to go and find him.” He received the papers back and thanked the young man for his help. The masked man turned back to look at Hikari, who was busy having an internal crisis from the fact an enemy was right in front of her. “Now, you’re the only one left who has yet to be sorted into a dorm. I will watch over your little racoon. So hurry and step in front of the mirror of darkness, young man.”

Hikari was too busy to notice the Headmaster’s choice of words. 

She fought the Magic Mirror in battle once. To say the least, she didn’t enjoy their first meeting.

The brunette sat on the stool, glaring daggers at the Magic Mirror. As if the Magic Mirror can understand her telepathically, it heard her say: _‘You better not say anything funny or else.’_

_“...state thou name, Milady.”_

“It’s—“

“Milady?”

The whole crowd erupted into murmurs. 

“A girl? In Night Raven, really?”

“Whoa! That’s a shocker!”

“Is she cute though?”

“I heard there was once a girl who studied in NRC, but that was way back!” 

The prefect on her left, Savanaclaw’s dorm leader was staring at the back of her head intensely. “Did it just address this kid as a girl?” There was disbelief in his tone.

The one on her right hummed in amusement. “I believe the Mirror of Darkness just did.” 

Hikari glanced left and right, wondering what was wrong with being a girl. “Is there a problem?” She asked unsurely to the Headmaster.

Crowley blinked. “Ah, no, no, it’s—“

Grim broke free from Crowley’s ‘whip of love’. “In that case, hand that seat over to me!” He ran towards Hikari who quickly stood up to avoid the demon-racoon’s attack. “Night Raven College is an all boys school, right? Hah! I’m very much qualified to fill that position!” He tugged on the end of Hikari’s robe.

“What?!” Hikari was more surprised at the fact Night Raven College was an all _boys_ school rather than Grim tugging on her robe. Master Yen Sid _never_ mentioned such a thing to her. She glanced to look at Crowley to see what he was doing. Maybe she could try to lie herself out of the situation. “I’m—Would you stop that?!” She grabbed Grim by his bow, lifting him up when he pounced himself at her. 

“I’ll show you!” Grim trashed around, trying to claw at Hikari’s arm. “I’ll show you right now just how exceptional I am at magic!” He hissed loudly.

“Oi! Let that thing go!” The male with a tail warned as he reached his hand out to make her let go of the ticking time bomb. The brunette knowing things would go downhill judging from the wrinkled face Grim was making, quickly released her grasp on his bow and stepped back. 

“Everyone get down!” The red-haired male shouted before ducking down to take cover. 

_Whoosh_

The blue flames spreaded across the room as Grim continued to breathe fire. 

“Hah! See? My powers are amazing!” Grim said proudly with his chest puffed out. 

“Arrghhh! Hot! Hot! My butt is burning!” The Scarabia prefect patted his behind as he tried to put the fire out. 

Crowley moved his hand and helped take out the fire closest to him. “That racoon! If this doesn’t stop, the school will be a sea of flames! Someone, please catch that racoon!”

“Tsk. How troublesome.” The man with a tail complained, but he couldn’t help to glance over at the girl, making sure she wasn’t injured from the racoon’s flames. 

The man who smelled like a million dollar perfume stepped up. “Well? Isn’t this your specialty? That raccoon should be a perfect, round and fat snack for you.” He said to the Savanaclaw Prefect.

The Savanaclaw Prefect glared. “Hah? Why me? You do it.”

Hikari stared at the chaotic scene. There were blue flames and while the teachers were busy putting the flames out, the first-years were panicking. The Prefects were too busy arguing with each other to deal with the matter. Night Raven College was a pretty eventful place and it hasn’t even passed the opening ceremony. 

The Headmaster placed his hands on his hips. “Everyone are you listening?!”

The Savanaclaw Prefect huffed in reply. “Then why don’t you catch the racoon yourself, Professor?” He crossed his arms, standing perfectly where he is. 

_‘Oh wow… how rebellious…’_ Hikari sighed before averting her eyes to Grim who was busy trying to escape two of the Prefects’ magic attacks. She looked over to her senior who was trying to put out the flames on his behind by himself. “Please stay still!” She casted water magic on him and a splash of cold water quenched the flames. 

“Waaah! Thanks! You saved me back there!” The young man thanked her with a grin on his face. 

“Please do something about him! He is your familiar, is he not?” Crowley scolded the brunette.

Hikari gave a disbelief look. “I keep trying to tell you, sir, it’s not mine.”

“Train it properly—“ The Headmaster cleared his throat, stopping his sentence when he heard that Grim didn’t belong to this freshman. “So it’s not yours? I apologize for my previous accusation then, young lady.” 

“It’s fine… I can see why you group me with that demon-racoon…” Hikari sighed. Since the minute she woke up, the demon-racoon has been seen around her. “Allow me to help!” She volunteered as she tried to catch up with the other two. 

Grim sniggered as he ran around the room, leading the two Prefects on a wild goose chase. “Hah! Just give up already! None of you can catch me!” He mocked, sticking his tongue out. 

The shorter male blasted hig magic, hitting the floor beside the cat. “You’ve got some nerve breaking the rules in front of me!” 

Grim continued to run around, avoiding the attacks. “Nyah nyah nyaaahh—“

The male with the glasses blinked. “Did he just stop? No, this is—!” His eyes widened when he realized Grim was actually frozen in time. There was a clock above its head, ticking down to twelve real quick. “He’s frozen in time!” There was a hint of amazement in his tone.

“Yeah! Only for a like three more seconds! Hurry!” Hikari came up behind them. She had only used Stopra and not the stronger version of the spell. The six second was almost up if the boys continued to idle around. 

“ _Off with your head!!_ ” The shorter male raised his magic pen and placed a heart-shaped collar on the demon-racoon. 

“—nyah Gaaah! What’s this?!” The moment Grim unfroze the collar was already placed around his neck. 

The shorter male huffed. “Rules number 23 of the Queen of Hearts: _You must not bring cats into areas of festivities.”_ He told as he crossed his arms. “As you are a cat, trespassing here is a serious rule violation. We will have you leave immediately.” 

“I’m not a cat! I can just burn this thing off—!” Grim exclaimed. Hikari was confused when the two boys didn’t proceed with capturing the demon-racoon even after she froze him in time. But after looking at the demon-racoon’s attempt to activate his magic, she immediately understood. “W—What?! My fire… it won’t work!!” 

The Heartlabyul Prefect smirked. “Until I remove that collar, you won’t be able to use your magic. It will get removed once you’re thrown out of the school.” 

“My~ Spectacular as ever, Riddle. Your unique magic can seal any other kind of magic away.” The Octavinelle Prefect mused, putting away his magic pen as well. “How I want it… not on me anyway.” He changed his tone midway.

Crowley sighed. “Now that that’s taken care of… Would someone do the honors of escorting the racoon out?” He said and a teacher came to take the demon-racoon out. 

“Gyaaahhh! Lemme go! I’m definitely, definitely—! Going to become a great mage!”

The door closed, shutting Grim’s complaints out. 

Hikari looked down. “Oh geez… I feel bad for the little guy now…” she said and the two Prefects heard it. 

“Don’t fret over the monster, Miss! It’s from your generous help in capturing this beast that we managed to stop it from destroying the school in flames.” The young man said politely, taking Hikari’s hand in his. The ability to stop time. Only for a few seconds, but every second is valuable. How unique! 

“Okay...” Hikari shook his hand in greeting. 

“Come. I believe the Mirror of Darkness still hasn’t sorted you into any dorms.” The Heartslabyul Prefect said as he turned around on his heel to lead Hikari back to the front. 

“I’m still allowed to be here?” Hikari asked carefully. From Grim’s statement and everyone’s reaction, it almost seemed like it was impossible for her to enroll because of the rules. If she had known this was an all boys school, she would’ve asked Riku or Ventus to take her place, but alas even Master Yen Sid wasn’t aware of this outcome. Twisted Wonderland was still a new world to them after all. 

“But of course! There is no rule in Night Raven College that states a female could not enroll.” The bespectacled male answered her question. He reassured that it was fine. “Now, it is certainly an usual sight to see a female student to be enrolled in Night Raven College…” 

_“A girl… at Night Raven College… rather strange, but…”_ a distant voice from a tablet said, making Hikari glanced to the far right.

“It is not impossible! It has been over 67 years since the last female student who enrolled here. A rare occurrence, might I add.” The Octavinelle Prefect said with a smile on his face.

Hikari spluttered, almost losing her balance. “Sixty—67 years?!” She shouted, staring at the Octavinelle Prefect with wide eyes. 

The voice in the tablet hummed. _“As expected of Azul to know these sorts of things.”_

Hikari sat back on the stool, having another crisis. She didn’t know the last female student who enrolled into Night Raven College was over 67 years ago. She learned something new, but she wondered if she would be alright. 

_“The shape of thy soul…”_ the Magic Mirror seemed to stare into Hikari’s soul. She gave him another look, silently saying for him to not say anymore funny business. _“I do not know.”_

“What did you say?” Crowley came to stand beside the stool, staring at the Magic Mirror with disbelief.

The Magic Mirror could feel the intense look Hikari was giving it underneath her hood. _“Forsooth, I feel a strong wavelength of magic power from thee. Howbeit, thou art’s soul is not eligible for any dormitory.”_

Hikari was giving an exasperated look. _‘You’re just making this more difficult.’_

“What do you think, Headmaster Crowley?” The Heartlabyul Prefect asked, surprise evident across his features. 

The Headmaster hummed in thought. “We had a lot of unexpected troubles, but I shall end the entrance ceremony right now. All vice dorm leaders, please lead your new students back to the dorms. I would like to take a few minutes to discuss with your dorm leaders.”

The keyblade wielder sighed. _‘That’s anticlimactic…’_ she thought as she watched all of the freshman exit the Mirror Chamber. Some students tried to get a good look at her face before being ushered out of the chamber. She envied all of the students who got sorted to a specific dorm. Now she has to deal with this problem alone. 

Crowley glanced around. “Now… where is Diamsonia’s dorm leader?”

Everyone seems to stiffen at the mention of another dorm leader. 

“Isn’t it normal for that guy not to be around?” The young man with the tail said.

The young man with a Turban pulled down his hood. “Ehhh! Wait! So nobody told him about the ceremony?!” He shouted, surprised written across his face.

Hikari gave a look, staring at the group oddly.

The beautiful male also pulled his hood down. “You easily could told him yourself, Kalim.” He said with his arms crossed.

 _‘You could’ve told him as well…’_ Hikari eyed the man.

“Hmmm.” The Scarabia Prefect looked troubled as he closed his eyes. “But I don’t know him that well…”

“In other words, you forgot about him, huh?” Hikari deadpanned with a hand on her hip. 

“I was wondering if that was the case.” A young man, who has an old-man accent came up from behind Hikari. She turned her head and averted her eyes down to look at the young male shorter than her. She didn’t mean to be rude, but after looking at the group of tall students, she expected the student with the old-man accent to be tall as well. “It seems that he truly hasn’t come… I suppose the invitation didn’t reach him...again.”

Hikari gave a whistle. “Oh, yikes.” 

The Octavinelle Prefect gave a dejected look. “I truly apologize. We certainly didn’t mean to leave him out.”

“It’s true that he carries an aura that makes him difficult to approach.” The Heartlabyul Prefect said with a sweatdrop. 

The male with the old-man accent sighed. “Well, it doesn't matter. I shall take his place in this short meeting. Silver can guide the new Diasomnia students back.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I just hope he doesn’t throw a fit over this…”

“Now then,” Crowley cleared his throat before he turned his attention to the young lady in the group. “It is certainly an honor to have another female student in Night Raven College, but I believe we have a small problem with where you should be housed.” He cupped his chin, trying to think of a solution to solve the problem.

Hikari raised her hands, waving them in front of her. “The honor is mine. Thank you for the invitation… but I'm fine with whatever dorm you decide for me.” She answered as politely as she could. 

“My, such manners!” The Octavinelle Prefect said with a smile, his hood pulled down. He was the only one with glasses in the group. “In the last entrance ceremony when Night Raven College choose female students, I believe Ms. Katherine Lefort has been sorted into Heartslabyul while Ms. Anastasia Van Halen has been sorted into Pomefiore.” 

Hikari blinked at the new information. _‘So, not one, but two…’_

“I don’t mind her being sorted to Heartslabyul.” The Heartslabyul Prefect spoke, looking at the brunette.

“Neither do I. Though, I do wish to look at the young lady’s face and know her name before she is sorted into my dorm.” The beautiful man said, his posture and movement just screamed elegance. 

“Oh, yeah! I haven’t even said my name, huh?” Hikari laughed it off, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. She never gave her name to the Magic Mirror either. She pulled the hood down and gave them all a grin. “My name’s Hikari. It’s nice to meet all of you.” 

“Hikari? Never heard of that name before…” The Scarabia Prefect tilted his head in confusion, but before Hikari could explain the meaning of her name, he came towards her, taking her hand in his. “But whatever~ it’s nice to meet you too! I’m Kalim Al-Asim! The dorm leader of Scarabia!” He introduced himself. 

“Ever heard of personal space? Leave the kid alone.” The Savanaclaw Prefect said with crossed arms. 

Kalim ignored the Savanaclaw Prefect’s warnings. “Hey, hey, Headmaster Crowley! How about Hikari being put in Scarabia instead? She saved me earlier, so I have to repay her!” 

The young male with an old-man accent hummed. “Well, you can’t just decide on your own, Kalim.” 

“My, my, I would also like to offer an invitation to Octavinelle. We have a few private rooms available.” 

“I do have an idea.” Crowley smiled. “There is a dorm near the school that we haven’t used in years.” He began.

 _“You mean that ramshackle building?”_ The voice from the tablet asked.

“But you can’t put her in that hazard building all alone!” Kalim protested. 

“I’m sure, Ms. Hikari would like some privacy to herself as well.” Crowley announced and the boys looked at her, silently agreeing with the Headmaster’s words. A girl alone in an all boys dorm was a bit…strange. Especially when there are only shared rooms in the dorms left because of the number of students this year. Most of them have private rooms left, but it was still the Headmaster’s final decision. “I will clean and repair the dorm as best as I can. After all, I am kind.” 

“Thank you, sir.” Hikari bowed her head. _‘Well, at least I have a room to myself and some privacy…’_ she smiled at the thought. 

“Now then! You are all dismissed. Please head back to your respective dorms.” Crowley clapped his hands once, dismissing the small meeting. 

Just when Hikari was about to follow Crowley, Kalim threw his arm around Hikari’s shoulders. “Oh, oh! How about you celebrate with us? We’re having a feast for the first-years in Scarabia!” He happily offered, extending his invitation to another dorm member. 

“Is it true that all dorms have a welcoming party to welcome the new students. It would be awful to celebrate it alone! How very thoughtful!” Crowley cried into his hands, wailing sadly at the thought of a new student spending her time alone in the Ramshackle dorm. He nodded his head at Kalim’s suggestion, wiping the invincible tears away with a golden claw ring. “Very well, Al-Asim! You may celebrate together! I shall come and pick Ms. Hikari in a few hours.” 

“Yay~” the boy cheered, taking the girl’s hand in his own, dragging her towards the Scarabia students. “Let’s go! Jamil is waiting!”

Hikari followed his pace, but not before glancing to look back at the other dorm leaders. _‘What an eventful day… it hasn’t even ended.’_

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
Morning Troubles

* * *

“It won’t be long now! We’ll reach the dorm soon.” 

Hikari walked behind the Headmaster. “Okay,” she simply responded. 

The welcoming party at Scarabia’s dorm was extravagant. The dorm was almost the same size as the Sultan’s palace in Agrabah. It was as if the party was thrown by the Sultan himself—which she learned, it was indeed thrown by the son of a world-renowned multi millionaire. 

She learned Kalim was a _very_ nice young man and stuck by her side the entire welcoming party, offering her the food and drinks that were served. Talking with the dorm leader meant the vice was not far. The vice dorm leader, Jamil, was always by Kalim’s side. She learned that both are childhood friends. It was their second year in Night Raven College.

If it wasn’t for Crowley coming in to pick Hikari up after the first hour, the welcoming party would’ve lasted all night. 

_“Ehh?! You’re leaving already?! The party’s just getting started!”_ Was what the cheerful dorm leader said as Hikari prepared to leave.

“We’ve arrived!” 

Hikari visibly stiffened when she saw the building’s state. 

At first glance, the rundown building looked as if it would crumble. She could hear the sound of woods creaking from the distance. Most of the windows were sealed tight with wooden planks. The stoned path that leads to the dorm was overgrown with weeds and covered in dead leaves. The trees around the dorm seemed dead with how no leaves seem to grow from the branches. She could even hear an owl hooting and bats chirping in the dead night.

“It’s a little old, but I’m sure you’ll feel at home!” Crowley walked up the porch and opened the door with a key from his pocket. 

Hikari cleared her throat. “A _little_ ?” She echoed, staring at the headmaster’s back with disbelief. She followed him inside and covered her face with her sleeve the moment she stepped inside the hallway. Dust was falling down like snow and she avoided the little spiders like the plague. The common area was more dusty and ancient than the hallway. “Yeah… It’s _really_ cozy, alright.” She said sarcastically.

Crowley gave a smile. “It is, is it not?”

The brunette gave a look behind the Headmaster’s back as he went up the stairs. 

“Come, come! I’ll show you to your room.” Crowley happily led the way to the second floor. The room on the left, right beside the stairs. He took out another key and inserted it into the keyhole. “This shall be the room you’ll be staying during your time at Night Raven College.” He stepped to the side, allowing the girl to see the room.

“Huh…” Hikari blinked when she saw the room’s condition. She expected the room to be dirty and old like the rest of the dorm, but it was surprisingly new. The room was brightly lit and the furniture looked brand new. There wasn’t a single speck of dust or any cobwebs on the ceiling. “It’s clean… and new.” She commented.

Crowley nodded his head. “Yes, yes! Unfortunately, I only had time to clean and replace everything in this room only.” He sighed, giving a dejected look. 

Hikari felt bad for judging the Headmaster. “It’s alright! This is more than enough! Thank you so much for taking your time to prepare this room on such short notice!” She gave a bow, showing her gratitude for the headmaster’s kindness. 

“You’re welcome, my dear! I am kind after all!” Crowley laughed at the brunette’s gesture. The two returned back to the foyer, talking about the school’s schedule for tomorrow. Since there wasn’t any dorm leader or vice dorm leader to inform the only female student in her dorm, the Headmaster took it as his responsibility to inform her everything she needed to prepare. “Now, I do apologize, but until I find the girls’ uniform, you have to wear the boys’ uniform for the time being.” He said.

“I don’t mind at all.” Hikari answered, a smile on her face. “The boys’ uniform seems comfortable.” 

Crowley’s glowing yellow eyes closed in a smile. “Well then, I shall take my leave and let you rest. Don’t be late for tomorrow’s assembly!” 

Hikari waved her hand goodbye as the headmaster took his leave. As soon as she heard the door by the foyer closed, she sighed to herself. The dorm wasn’t what she was expecting, but at least her room was clean and tidy. She didn’t mind how different the Ramshackle dorm was compared to the extravagant Scarabia dorm. The Ramshackle dorm had the same feeling back when she was staying at Merlin’s house—minus the dust and spiders.

“I guess it’s cleaning time…” Hikari looked around for a storage room.

Back at Radiant Garden, the committee has a chore system where they took turns doing the chores around the house. Even though she learned magic under the tutelage of Merlin and Mickey, and even the great Yen Sid, Aerith prefered if she did the chores without any help from magic. To become independent and not depend too much on her extra skills, Aerith said. 

Her phone vibrated inside her pocket and she took it out. “Oh? From Kalim?”

 _Hey, hey, hey! How’s the dorm? If you don’t like it, come back to Scarabia! Jamil said we have an extra room!  
_ _—Kalim_

“That’s very nice of him.” Hikari laughed before typing a reply. The boy immediately wanted to exchange phone numbers so they can chat whenever. Despite Kalim being comfortable around her, Jamil on the other hand was a bit distant. Sure, he answered her questions and told Kalim not to bother her with too many questions, but the long-haired boy seemed suspicious of her for some reason. “Alright! Let’s get started.” She pocketed her phone away.

She had found the supply room. There were brooms, mops, buckets and everything she needed to clean the dorm. They were covered with a thick layer of dust and she couldn’t help but sneeze from it. 

“Ugh…” Hikari rubbed her nose with the robe’s sleeve before snapping her fingers. The objects were covered in a glittery light as they came to life. The magic she learned was a simple one she learned from Mickey. It was one of the first things Mickey learned when he was Yen Sid’s apprentice. “Wakey! Wakey! We have some cleaning up to do!” 

The cleaning utensils began to move on their own, shaking the dust off themselves. Hikari extended her arm and a broom came into her hand. Cleaning with magic was faster, but it just doesn’t have that satisfaction when doing it by herself. She wasn’t one who liked to do chores when she was younger. She was too lazy to do them, even when her mother told her to take out the trash. But as she grew older, she wouldn't complain if she was told to clean.

_Pitter-patter_

Hikari glanced to look out the window when she heard the sound of raindrops hitting the glass. She stopped sweeping the floor as the other object continued.

“Hmm,” the rain came down harder by the passing second. 

“Why did it rain so suddenly?!”

Hikari blinked when she heard a voice inside the empty dorm. The Headmaster left just ten minutes ago. She looked around and her left eye twitched when she saw something glowing blue hiding behind the sofa.

“Persistent, now are you?” Hikari peeked behind the sofa, holding the broom in hand. The little creature jumped in surprise and stared at her with wide eyes. “If you plan on a sneak attack, try to be more quiet next time.” She teased with a sly grin.

The demon-racoon hissed at the brunette. 

Hikari sighed. “Why are you so persistent to go into this academy anyway?” She asked, still holding the broom in hand. The demon-racoon wasn’t exactly a threat to her. 

Grim blinked before he gave her a proud look. “It’s because I was born to become a great magician!” He stated boldly as Hikari let out a disinterest hum. She leaned against the broom as Grim continued on his explanation. “I’ve always been waiting for the black carriage to pick me up… but… but—!!” His paws curled as he stared at it intensely. 

Hikari understood Grim’s feelings. Since she cheated her way in with Yen Sid’s magic, she felt guilty for the little creature. The great wizard had used his magic to set everything up, starting from the black carriage to her enrollment into the NRC. 

“The Mirror of Darkness has no eyes! That’s why I came here by myself!” Grim looked back up to Hikari who somehow looked like she was paying more attention than before. He huffed loudly and placed his paws on his hips. “Those humans will regret not letting me in this academy!” 

_Splash_

“Ah! Cold!” Grim exclaimed in surprise when a droplet of water from the ceiling hit his head. He ran around the room, but there were just too many leaks. “My charming point! My flaming ears are going to fade!” He raised his paws, trying to shield himself from the droplets.

Hikari glanced up to look at the ceiling. “Oh, man! It’s leaking everywhere!” She waved her hand and a bucket came floating to the spot above Grim, holding the water from dropping onto the cat’s head. She could also feel the water dripping onto her head. She raised the hood up and sighed. “I should’ve taken Kalim’s offer and stayed in Scarabia…” she huffed. 

“This should be an easy fix with magic!” Grim huffed with a glare, waving his tail. “But you wouldn’t know how since you’re just a first year.” 

“Right,” Hikari drawled out, rolling her eyes. 

_“Hihihihihi”_

Grim blinked. “Did you hear that?”

Hikari looked around. 

_“It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a guest!!_

_“I’m itching to work out!”_

Grim visibly tensed and quickly ran over to Hikari, hiding between her legs and under her robes. “Gyaah! This place… don’t tell me it’s haunted?!”

The brunette held onto the broom tightly. Of course, with the ominous voices coming from nowhere, there was bound to be something bad that lingers within the old dorm. Ghosts, ghouls and monsters were a common sight for her if she visited Halloween Town or the Underworld. Some were creepy and some were nice in a way. 

Grim screeched when something pulled on his tail. “Gyaaahhh!”

The laughing grew louder at Grim’s terrified screams.

“What—!” Hikari yelped as something came towards their way. The keyblade wielder raised the broom and hit the bucket away, preventing it from hitting her in the face. 

There were faint silhouettes and slowly, the ghosts finally appeared. The objects that were in Hikari’s control were now in theirs. Grim clutched onto Hikari’s ankle tightly as the ghosts began to float around them, circling them.

 _“Everyone who lives here all got scared of us and left.”_ One ghost said.

 _“We’re always looking for new ghost comrades. How about you join us?”_ Another laughed.

 _“Awww is the little kitty scared? Don’t worry! We’ll just play with you a little bit.”_ The other jeered.

Grim jumped out of his hiding spot. “The Great Magician—Lord Grim isn’t scared of some ghosts!” He blew fire left and right, but neither seemed to hit the ghosts.

“Hey! Watch where you’re aiming!” Hikari shouted as she casted a Water spell on the places that got caught by Grim’s fire. She had a thought to just summon the keyblade and maybe that would scare the ghosts away, but would it even work? “Do you always close your eyes when you throw fire?!” She huffed, casting Fira herself to scare the ghosts.

 _“Hot!”_ The ghost immediately backed away when it got hit by the fire.

Hikari ordered, “To your left!”

Grim turned to look at Hikari. “Shut up! Don’t order me around, human!” The cat turned to his left and breathed fire with his eyes closed, but by Hikari’s instruction, he hit the ghost. “Ah, I hit it! I hit it!” He said happily.

With newly found confidence, Grim stood proudly. “Alright! We’re gonna drive them away just like this! Let’s work together, human!” 

As Grim blindly blew fire to hit the ghosts, Hikari raised her hand and three pillars of flame appeared. The pillars circled around her before expanding its orbit. The flames were large, but they didn’t burn the wood around them. Only the ghosts were harmed by the heat of the never ending flames. 

_“Gaah! What is this kid?!”_

_“So hot!”_

_“Run!”_

The ghosts disappeared and Hikari dispelled the Raging Storm.

“You can stop now.” Hikari kneeled down and touched the cat’s small shoulder. The cat yelped in surprise at the sudden touch. In the end, monster or not, Grim was just a cat looking for a way to be recognized by others. She didn’t know how often a talking familiar would become a mage in Twisted Wonderland, but a little confidence boost should cheer the cat up. “You scared away all the ghosts.” She smiled.

“I… did?” Grim blinked owlishly, tilting his head. “Huh, I did it! That’s right! The great magician, Lord Grim scared off those ghosts! Piece of cake!” He did a little winner dance before puffing his chest up proudly. 

Hikari sighed softly. 

The two of them flinched when they heard the sound of a door being slammed open, followed by rapid footsteps running towards their direction. 

“What’s going on here?!” Crowley came marching inside, surprising the two. “I heard the ruckus and saw the flames—!” His bright golden eyes drifted down to the cat beside Hikari. “That’s the monster who acted violently during the opening ceremony! I thought we’ve thrown him out already, why is he here?!” 

Hikari decided to step in between. “Headmaster Crowley! You see, this… demon-racoon over here actually came here to help.” 

“Hmph! And to think I exterminated the ghosts here! Be grateful!” Grim huffed, crossing his arms before turning to look at Hikari sharply because of the nickname. 

Crowley blinked, “Ghosts, you say?” The man hummed, placing a hand on his chin. “Come to think of it, in this dorm… ever since the mischievous ghosts settled down. They’ve been causing trouble and scared off all the students… It has become an abandoned dorm.” He informed them with a look full of thoughts.

Hikari gave a deadpan look. “Oh geez… and you forgot to inform me that this place was haunted?” The Headmaster was lucky that she dealt with ghosts before, otherwise she would’ve been scared. “I was lucky because demon-racoon was here, isn’t that right?

“You betcha—Hey!!”

“Thank you then, little racoon, for protecting my student from those mischievous ghosts.” Crowley thanked and Grim gave a proud and smug look. “But unfortunately, I cannot let a monster stay in this school.” The joy was short-lived.

The brunette didn’t have the heart to throw the persistent little guy out in the cold rain. “C—Can you let the demon-racoon stay? You know, as a ghost exterminator? The ghosts might return and demon-racoon right here might be the only one who can drive the ghosts away!” She tried to convince him.

Crowley sighed, giving into the brunette’s sad kicked puppy look. “Very well… Alright.” 

“Thank you so much, Headmaster Crowley!”

After that deal, the Headmaster left the two in peace, but after he fixed the leaking problem with magic of course. The two collapsed in the common area, slumping on the floor. They sighed heavily. 

“Y’know, you’re not that bad, human! Thanks for backing me up! I didn’t need it, but I appreciate it!” The demon-racoon said.

Hikari laughed. “No problem. Let’s work well together from now on.”

“The name’s Lord Grim! You better remember that, human!”

“Call me Hikari.”

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The next morning

Despite the Ramshackle dorm being located right next to the school, Hikari still has to walk all the way to the Main Street to reach the main building. There wasn’t any bridge that connected the two locations. 

Hikari adjusted the weight on her back. Her backpack was heavier than she expected and she just packed a notebook and writing utensils for the assembly. The Main Street was busy with the first years all heading towards the school building. It was her first time seeing the campus grounds.

There were precisely seven statues of the Great Seven by the Main Street.

 _‘Even though they’re just legends, they definitely nailed the details.’_ Hikari gave a knowing nod as she stared at the Queen of Hearts. 

“Fuwaah! So this is the Main Street!” A voice said over her shoulder.

“Grim?!” Hikari exclaimed in surprise when she saw Grim peeking over her shoulder. The cat probably sneaked into her backpack when she wasn’t looking and hitched a ride to school. “What are you doing here?! The Headmaster specifically told you to stay at the dorm!” She chided.

Grim huffed. “It’s boring there! And besides, how am I going to be the best mage if all I do is just sit around in the dorm all day!” He argued with a deep frown. Luckily, the blue flames didn’t exactly burn when it came in contact with something. It was like an accessory for the cat. “Hey, hey, who’s this auntie over here?” He asked as he jumped out of Hikari’s backpack.

“That’s—“

“What? You don’t know the Queen of Hearts?” A new person asked in disbelief. The duo turned their heads to see a student with messy dark orange hair and red eyes. There was a noticeable red patch shaped like a heart over his left eye. A red vest along with a matching red magic stone, meant that he was a student of the Heartslabyul dorm. 

Grim tilted his head. “Queen of Hearts? Is she an important person?”

Hikari was curious as well. How did they view the Queen of Hearts here?

The orange-haired teen came closer, looking at the statue as well. “In the old days, she was the queen who lived inside the Rose Labyrinth. She’s a strict person who respects discipline and she won’t forgive any disorder from her subjects—especially her soldiers. Even though it’s a country full of insane guys, they’re all in complete obedience to her. Why? It’s because disobedience to law will get you instantly beheaded!”

Grim stiffened. “That’s scary!”

Hikari hummed. The Queen of Hearts here wasn’t that much different from the Queen of Hearts she knew in Wonderland. Both were quick to judge at the slightest of offense. 

The boy laughed. “But isn’t it cool? ‘Cause like, nobody will obey a queen that’s only kind hearted, right?” 

“True…” Hikari sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. She never saw the Queen of Heart’s nice side. Visiting Wonderland was always a thrill. The bizarre world was one of the first worlds she visited when her adventure began. Either she was running away from the card soldiers or she was stuck listening to the un-birthday song over and over again.

“By the way, who are you?” Grim asked the boy.

The boy gave a boyish smile, pointing his thumb to himself. “I’m Ace! A fresh first- year student starting from today. Pleasure to meet ‘cha!” He introduced, extending his hand for a shake.

“I’m the great Grim! And this here is my henchman!” Grim and Ace shook hands with Ace kneeling down to reach the cat’s level. The Heartslabyul boy stood back up, turning his attention to the henchman.

Hikari facepalmed. “Ignore this racoon. My name’s Hikari. It’s nice to meet you, Ace.” She gave a firm shake to his hand. 

Ace blinked. “Hikari? That’s an unusual name…”

“I get that a lot…” 

Grim tugged on Ace’s pants. “Hey, hey, Ace, then is that lion with the scar on his eye a famous guy too?” He pointed his other paw to the lion statue. 

_‘Oh, Scar.’_ Hikari decided to just stay quiet and listen to Ace’s explanation.

“Of course! He’s the King of Beasts who ruled over the Savanna. However, he’s not a born king. He’s a hard worker who took over the throne with a diligent plan he made by himself. After he became king, he proposed to live together with the hyenas who were hated by everyone too, without any discrimination.”

Hikari raised an eyebrow. _‘The story’s getting weird.’_ Of course, Scar took over Pride Lands, but after he killed his brother—Mufasa—out of jealousy. Under Scar’s reign, Pride Lands became a barren wasteland. He was a prince, but he wasn’t destined to become king because of his rotten personality. 

Grim looked at the lion statue with awe. “Ohh! People who don’t get swayed by social status? That rocks! Then who’s the auntie with the octopus legs?

They moved to look at the Ursula statue. “She’s the Witch of the Sea who lives in a cave in the depths of the sea. Her raison d’etre was to help unhappy mermaids. If you pay the price, she’d help you find a solution to all your problems. It seems that there aren’t any wishes she can’t grant. I heard the cost was a bit expensive though.”

“If it’s to grant any wish, it’s kinda expected don’t you think?” Hikari played along with Ace’s story. Of course, Ursula helped fulfill the unhappy merfolk’s wishes, but she would turn them to polyps if they couldn’t fulfil their side of the bargain. In exchange for legs, Ariel traded her voice. They were lucky in the end they managed to stop Ursula and save Atlantica. 

Ace pointed finger guns at her. “Exactly~”

“In other words, if I become a great magician I'd get rich?!” Grim beamed happily.

“Not exactly the point, Grim.” Hikari sighed.

“How about the guy with the big hat?” Grim then pointed to Jafar.

Ace whistled. “This one’s one of my favorites! He’s the great sage of the Desert Kingdom. He’s the cabinet minister who works under the useless king.” He waved his hand, an annoyed look across his face.

“U—Useless king?” Hikari spluttered. Sultan Hamed Bobolonius II of Agrabah is a very kind man, albeit very gullible. The Sultan always greeted her and her brother each time they visited Agrabah. He would invite them to feasts and treat them as if they were his own. He was a great ruler with a kind heart. “I heard in the story he was very… gullible.”

“I know right? And you know how The Great Sage of the Desert Kingdom managed to see through a swindler, right? That no-good thief was trying to deceive the princess by faking his status as a prince!” Ace explained and Hikari was sure it was right at some point, but the fact the truth was twisted from the real story kinda made her peeved.

“After that he managed to get the magic lamp and rose to become the world’s number one great sage! Furthermore, he also took the king’s throne by using that power!” The boy finally finished his story about Jafar. 

_‘That certainly wasn’t how it went…’_ Hikari smiled nervously. 

Ace then moves to explain the Evil Queen. “This person is said to be the world’s most beautiful queen. Everyday, she checks the beautiful person ranking in the mirror. And then if it said she was about to fall from the number one, she won’t spare any efforts. Hey, you know, high awareness to keep being number one in beauty is impressive right? She was also an expert at making poisons!”

Queen Grimhilde was someone Hikari was very unfamiliar with. She only heard stories about her from the Dwarfs and Aqua. The Evil Queen ordered Terra to kill Snow White and bring back the princess’ heart—to which of course, he returned empty handed. The Evil Queen poisoned Snow White and were later on defeated. 

Hikari encountered the Magic Mirror by accident when she was traveling to Dwarf Woodlands. It was a few years ago, in the secret underground lair, she was wandering the castle to look for clues about the whereabouts of her missing friends. She was forced to fight the Spirit before she was given the answer she had been looking for. Not a very pleasant meeting, if she has to say so herself. 

“Pretty but scary…” Grim said with a gulp. 

“I mean, it’s pretty cool to have a fixation you won’t ever give up on.” Ace commented with a grin.

 _‘It’s called an unhealthy obsession…’_ the brunette laughed along.

“Then how about this scary dude?”

“He’s the king of the Land of the Dead! They said he ruled over a land of evil spirits by himself. So he must be a very powerful person. He has a scary face, but he’s a sincere person who does even the unpleasant work without rest. And of course, Cerberus, Hydra and the Titan family all follow his orders and fight for him.” 

_Hades_. Hikari shrugged her shoulders. Hades is the Lord of the Dead and ruler of the Underworld. A very hotheaded god who has a dry sense of humor. At some point, Hades just gave up trying to take over Thebes. Hikari couldn’t take him as seriously as before since he became very passive and just chose to hang out in the Underworld, but whenever there was trouble stirring at Olympus, she’d be sure to give him a visit first. 

“Lastly, we have the Witch of Thorns who once lived in the Mountain of Demons. Noble and elegant, and even compared to all the other seven, her magic and curse skills are number one. She does things like manipulating thunderclouds to bring about a storm, fully covering a kingdom with thorns! Anyways, her magic’s on a super huge scale. They said she could also transform into an enormous dragon.”

Ace ended the story of the Great Seven with his arms crossed.

Maleficent was definitely the strongest out of the others. The Mistress of Evil’s influence almost always extends throughout the worlds. Hikari did work under Maleficent for a short period of time to accompany Riku, but after finding out she was using the Princesses of Hearts to open Kingdom Hearts, Hikari immediately left. 

“They’re so cool right? Unlike a certain racoon.” 

Hikari turned to look at Ace with a surprised look. 

“W—What?” Grim had the same expression as Hikari when Ace suddenly changed his attitude.

The boy doubled over as he laughed. “I can’t hold it anymore!” He kept on laughing until his sides hurt. The brunette and the cat exchanged confused looks before staring at the boy weirdly. “You’re the racoon who caused a riot during the opening ceremony, right? Man! It was so hard to stop myself from laughing during the whole thing!” He wiped the tears at the corner of his eyes.

Grim spluttered. “What?! W—What a rude guy!” 

“And in the end, this loser over here has to look after you, right?” Ace grinned mischievously and Hikari gave an offended look at him when he dubbed her as loser. “Seriously, to not know the Great Seven are… just how ignorant are you?! I recommend you to start over from kindergarten before coming to Night Raven College.” He sneered.

Hikari huffed, crossing her arms. “ _Excuse_ me? Who was the one that was babbling through the whole thing and didn’t let me explain?” She retorted. Truthfully, she didn’t know who the Great Seven were to the eyes of Twisted Wonderland. The ones she knew were villains. Evil. Her story would contrast with Ace’s and that would be a problem, but that doesn’t mean she would just stay down and be played with. “News flash, Chicken Butt, it’s _you_.” She pointed her finger at him.

Ace frowned, scowling at the brunette. “You picking a fight or something?”

Grim gave the most obvious look. “You’re the one who started it! We let you talk a little and you crossed the line!” He stood up and hissed before breathing fire at Ace’s direction.

The boy avoided the fire. “Oops! You missed!” He mocked in a sing-song voice. He took out his magic pen. “I gotta say, you got guts picking a fight with me! I’ll turn you into a frizzy toy poodle!” 

Hikari also took out the magic pen Crowley gave her. The pen won’t do her any good since her magic didn’t work like the mages from Twisted Wonderland. But if it’s to avoid anyone being suspicious of her, she would use it as a wand. The stone was a light purple color, similar to Pomefiore’s color, but a lighter color. 

“What’s up? A fight?” 

“Nice! A free show! Get ‘em, Ace!” 

Grim took a deep breath. “Fuwaaaah!”

“Hah! My wind magic can bend it!” Ace casted a spell and a gush of wind blew the blue flames away from hitting him. 

Hikari casted a water spell as a wall to stop the blue flames from hitting the students who circled them to witness the free show. “You both have the worse aim!” She shouted.

No matter how much she wanted to teach Ace a lesson, she was more concerned with the safety of the other students. 

“Whose side are you on anyway?!” Grim complained. He turned back to look at Ace. “Eat this!” He blew again, bigger this time.

“I’ll just change its direction—Ah, shit!” Ace cursed loudly when the flames hit one of the statues, The Queen of Hearts, instead. Hikari quickly casted a huge wave of water to put the fire out. The three of them cringed from the amount of damage the statue took. “The Queen of Hearts’ statue burned black!”

“Now, _whose_ fault was that?” Hikari emphasized, looking at the boy with crossed arms.

Ace glared at the brunette, snapping his head around to look at her sharply. “You’re blaming me? _Whose_ flames was it anyway?” He eyed the cat dirtily.

Grim gave an angry hiss. “Oh yeah?! _Who_ was the one who started all of this?!” 

The three of them glared at each other. 

“Hey, hey, what’s going on here?” A voice with an accent interrupted the glaring contest. There was a boy standing there with ears sticking out of his head. He was wearing the regular uniform—albeit a bit oversized. There was also another student behind him, taller in stature and the young man seemed to hold more power. Since there would be another assembly to guide the new first-years, the dorm leaders and vice dorm leaders were told to be present. “Oh, geez! The Queen of Hearts’ statue’s burnt!” His eyes widened when he spotted the statue.

Hikari immediately recognized the taller male as the dorm leader of Savanaclaw from yesterday’s ceremony. 

There was a smirk across the Savanaclaw’s Prefect. “You first years sure got guts!” He smirked.

“It was this loser’s fault.” Ace accused first.

Hikari gasped. “Me?! Oh, yeah, I forgot.” She smirked and Ace looked at her suspiciously when she agreed with his accusation. “Your head’s filled with too much of your wind magic, right? So, of course an airhead like you would get things mixed up.” She sighed, nodding her head mockingly.

It was mean of her, but she just can’t hold it.

The Savanaclaw Prefect couldn’t help but covered his mouth, stopping a laugh from escaping. Certainly, the girl had guts. 

“What did you just say, Loser?!” Ace grabbed hold of Hikari’s blazer, pulling her closer threateningly. Out of instinct, Hikari grabbed onto his collar too, raising her fist at him.

“You have a hearing problem, Chicken Butt?! I can repeat it again if you want!”

“Then say it straight to my face!” 

It was then the Savanaclaw Prefect decided to step in. “Break it up, you two!” He shouted. He held onto the two teens’ shoulders, pulling them apart with force. 

“What’s with all this ruckus?!” 

Grim shrieked. “It’s the Headmaster! Run! Don’t let him bind you with his whip of love!” The cat bolted between the other students’ legs, trying to run away from Crowley and his whip of love while leaving Ace and Hikari in the dust. In a flash, the whip of love wrapped around his body, preventing him from escaping. “Gah! It hurts!” He yelped.

“It’s a hundred years too early for you to run from me!” The Headmaster tugged on the whip, dragging Grim back into the circle. He turned to look at Ace and Hikari who huffed and looked away from each other with the Savanaclaw Prefect in between them. The students around them began to walk away, afraid to get caught up in the mess. “I thought I’ve told you earlier not to cause any trouble? Furthermore, to burn black one of the statues of the Great Seven!” He pressed a finger on where his temple was.

The three of them stayed quiet.

“Hikari, you were the one who requested for Grim to stay. He is now under your supervision! You can’t call this supervising!” The Headmaster chided.

“My bad…” Hikari admitted with Grim in her arms.

“I want the three of you to apologize. Right now.” 

Hikari leaned forward to look at Ace with a disgusted look to which he returned. Grim’s expression mimicked Hikari’s. He, too, didn’t want to apologize with the mischievous boy. 

The keyblade wielder was the first to extend her hand. “We’re gonna be here forever if we don’t apologize.” She stated as a matter of fact and Ace grunted before he reluctantly grabbed her hand. He grasped her hand a little too tightly. Grim placed his paw over their hands. “Sorry, Chick— _Ace_.” 

“ _Sorry_ , Ace.”

“ _Sorry_.” 

The three of them immediately let each others’ hands go.

“Good.” Crowley nodded in satisfaction. “Now, as a punishment, I order the three of you to clean 100 windows!” His tone suddenly changed. Stern and firm.

“What?!”

“After today’s schedule, gather in the school cafeteria. _Understood_?”

“Fine…”

Hikari groaned. “Okay, sir.”

Ace was the first one to leave.

The keyblade wielder sighed heavily. She never thought the day would begin with a fight. She was grateful now that she knew a basic story of the Great Seven. They were indeed hailed as powerful legends with a great reputation. 

“We’re really sorry about the statue, Headmaster Crowley.” Hikari rubbed the back of her neck guiltily. 

The Headmaster sighed. “It’s alright, Hikari.”

The Savanaclaw’s vice placed his hands on his hips. “It’s a good thing Mr. Leona stepped in before things went downhill, huh?” 

The Savanaclaw Prefect, Leona, scoffed. “It’s natural I would step in. Who in their right mind would just stand by and watch as a man raised his fist against a girl?” He said as a matter of fact. 

The Vice laughed. “As expected of the gentleman Mr. Leona.” 

“Oh, how nice of you.” Grim sniggered.

Hikari bowed her head. “Thank you, Leona-senpai,” she turned to look at the Vice. 

“Ruggie Bucchi, just call me Ruggie.”

“Thank you too, Ruggie-senpai.” 

The Headmaster ushered the three to start moving. “Let’s start moving now! We don’t want to be late for the assembly! Ah, wait,” he stopped the trio from walking and picked Grim out of Hikari’s grasps. “I would be taking Grim back to the Ramshackle dorm. But don’t worry! He won’t be excluded from the punishment. I would pick him up when it’s time for you to clean the windows.” He said.

“Nyaahhh!” Grim whined as he tried to break free.

They watched Crowley walk back to the direction of the Ramshackle Dorm, with Grim in his hands.

Leona was the first to move. “Let’s get moving.”

“Yes! Sorry!” Hikari replied before moving along. She just hoped she won’t be in the same class as Ace after the morning’s whole ordeal. 

_Too bad they ended up as classmates._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, this chapter is very different from the game. As you read near the end, Leona and Ruggie weren’t supposed to show up until later on, but I decided to change things up.
> 
> Raging Storm is a magic spell in KH, just for the extra information.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write the story based on what I’ve heard and what cards I have at the moment! I’m not very good at translating, but I get most of what they’re trying to say. 
> 
> This chapter has a few extra scenes I added, so be warned! 
> 
> Also, if you have time and want to read the personal stories I made about the dorm leaders and Hikari, feel free to check them out at my twitter or tumblr. There are only currently three comic posted. Riddle, Leona and Azul.

Chapter 4  
The Longest day

* * *

The morning assembly was a lecture from the Headmaster himself—explaining the details how the school system worked. For a magic school, Hikari thought they would solemnly focus on teaching and improving the students’ magic abilities. There were also non-magic based subjects as well, like math and music for example. The school was also based on a credit system, just like a normal college.

Right after the morning lecture, the group of first-years were scheduled to have a tour of the school based on their class. It was safe to say Hikari and Ace kept their distance from each other throughout the whole tour. What irked her the most was the fact that Ace is indeed her classmate. He often looked over his shoulder to give her a dirty look—to which she returned as well.

After the tour, they were all guided to have lunch at the cafeteria.

_ ‘So far everything seems normal…’  _ Hikari hummed in thought as she skimmed through the list of elective classes. Aside from the compulsory lessons, she could choose the elective lessons as much as she wanted—as long as the classes don’t collide with the compulsory lessons’ timetable.  _ ‘They even teach Defensive Arts… probably against dark magic?’ _

“Is it alright if I sit here?” a voice snapped her from her thoughts. She turned to look at the boy holding a tray of food. There was a signature black spade-shaped patch painted over his right eye. A Heartslabyul student, she guessed. The boy was the serious type judging by his expression. 

Hikari motioned her hand for him to sit down. “Go on ahead!” 

The boy took a seat beside her. “Is everything alright though? I saw how troubled you looked before…” he asked in concern.

Hikari laughed nervously. “Was it really showing on my face?” she asked and the boy gave a nod. Did she really look that troubled for someone to go out of their way to ask her? “I was just thinking about what elective class I should take… I can’t choose between—” She squinted her eyes and read the first two that caught her eyes. “...Animal Language and Study of Ancient Runes?”

She wasn’t actually interested in taking those two particular classes. 

The boy hummed, “Those two lessons are indeed very helpful.” he said, a hand on his chin as he tried to think of a solution to help his seatmate. 

“There’s just too many classes that I want to take.” Hikari grinned sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck. Her encounter with a Heartslabyul student earlier left a bad image, but she couldn’t just judge a whole dorm based on one student. “Oh, yeah! I haven’t got your name yet. I’m Hikari, it’s nice to meet you. We’re from the same class, right? Class 1-A.” she extended her hand, offering to shake hands.

The boy blinked before happily shaking her hand. “Deuce, Deuce Spade… but call me Deuce. After all, we are classmates.” he introduced himself with a smile. “What do you think of NRC so far?” 

Hikari smiled at him. “Big… Very big.” She laughed. “But I think it’s going to be fun! The classes seem interesting too.”

The two chatted as they finished their lunches. They decided to take a few elective classes together since having a friend in the same class is much more fun in comparison to taking it alone. After the tour of the school and lunch at the cafeteria, the schedule for that day ended and the students can return to their dorms after they submitted their classes.

“You’re not coming?” Deuce asked with a raised eyebrow when Hikari stayed put. 

“Can’t anyway… I’m stuck on detention from the Headmaster.” Hikari sighed heavily, slouching on the table. 

The dark blue-haired teen’s eyes widened. “D—Detention?! And on the first day as well?! What did you do?” He half asked, half shouted.

Hikari massaged her temple. “I got into a fight… You saw the burnt statue at the Main Street, right? Yeah… that was kinda our fault.” She huffed, clicking her tongue at the thought of Ace Trappola—the Chicken Butt classmate of hers. 

Deuce looked more shocked than he was before. “T—That was you?!”

“Yup.” Hikari answered nonchalantly. She had seen it coming the moment she accepted the challenge to start a fight, the punishment that comes after. The cafeteria was beginning to quiet down with students leaving the room one by one. She spotted Ace sitting from afar and she glared at the orange haired boy. “But don’t worry, Deuce, you can go on ahead. I’ll see you at class tomorrow.” She said with a smile.

The boy nodded. “A… Alright. I’ll see you in class tomorrow then.” He said his goodbye and left.

“Never would’ve thought you’d make friends with a stick in the mud like him.” A voice greeted her from behind. 

Hikari groaned. “It’s better than having a troublemaker like you.” She shot back with her arms crossed and a pointed glare. “You’re classmates with him too, y’know?” She said as a matter of fact. 

Ace placed a hand over his heart, feigning his hurt. “Oh ouch, your words are like knives.” He smirked, “We’re classmates, but I have no intention of making friends with anyone being buddy-buddy with you, Loser.” 

“The feeling’s mutual, Chicken Butt.”

“What’s this? Are you two going to fight again?” The Headmaster came in between the two teens, surprising them greatly. They let out a startled yell and backed away from the Headmaster in unison. He stood there, a cane in his hand while Grim was in the other. “Have you not learned your lesson?”

“This guy… He sneaked up on us without making a sound!” Ace whispered, his brows furrowed. 

Hikari whispered back, “Which means you gotta stop doing stupid things.”

“What was that?” Ace’s left eye twitched as he glared.

“I’m glad I don’t have to chase down the both of you like I did with this one,” Crowley smiled at the two teens as he placed Grim down, who huffed with his arms crossed. “Now, as I’ve spoken earlier, the three of you shall be cleaning 100 windows, starting from the cafeteria.” He clapped his hands and the cleaning equipment appeared in their hands.

“Yes, sir…” 

Crowley gave them the same smile. “Now, be good and behave! I shall return later to check on your progress.” He turned on his heels walking straight towards the door.

Once the door was closed the three troublemakers sighed. 

Ace sighed loudly, “Alright, let’s just get this over with.” He said as he walked towards the left side of the cafeteria, carrying the equipment in his hands as well. “I’ll take the left side, you two take the right.” 

Hikari and Grim stared at the boy’s back. “Huh… He’s suddenly being very considerate.” The cat said as he turned his head to look at the girl. 

The brunette sighed as she took off her blazer, placing it on the table. “Better like this than starting another fight…” she rolled her sleeves up to her elbows and took the bucket. “C’mon, Grim, let’s get started.” She said and the cat reluctantly followed along.

“Y’know, the ghosts came back!” Grim said as Hikari gave him a sponge. “They kept annoying me left and right!” He complained.

“Did you fight them?” Hikari asked, staring at the cat with a skeptical look. She just hoped the Ramshackle dorm was still in one piece when they finished their punishment. 

“I won! But they just keep on coming back! Those nasty ghosts—!!” Grim snarled with his tail standing up, squeezing the sponge tight in his little paws. “Someday—I’ll definitely drive them out!” He said determinedly. 

Hikari nodded, “I’m sure you will,” she said to him before taking the empty bucket to the kitchen. Despite being on each other’s bad sides, she wanted to at least try to get along and give it another try with her classmate. After all, she was the one who provoked him to start the fight, “Hey, Ace—?!” Her eyes widened when the boy was nowhere to be seen. 

“Oh, are you looking for the boy with the wild orange-hair?” The young man with an old man accent appeared out of nowhere. He was with a silver-haired boy, carrying a tray of empty plates toward the return corner. The young man was the one from the entrance ceremony, there was no mistake. There wasn’t any other student with an old man accent. “He left not five minutes ago.” He informed her with a smile.

“He left?!” Both Hikari and Grim shouted in unison, disbelief across their faces

“I knew it! That no good two faced jerk!” Grim threw the sponge to the floor in rage before dashing towards the door. “I’ll find him and drag him back here if I have to!” He hissed.

“Ah wait! You’re planning to ditch this on me too?!” Hikari reached her hand out towards the cat to stop him, but it was too late. She sighed deeply as she was left to clean the windows alone.

“You poor girl… That boy and your familiar are sure naughty to leave a girl to do this alone.” The young man with an old man accent said in pity. “Shall I lend a hand?” He offered.

Hikari pinched the bridge of her nose. “No… It’s okay… Thank you for the offer, but I got this covered.” Chasing those two would only lead to more trouble if Crowley found out all of them were playing a game of cat and mouse instead of finishing their task. She needs to keep reminding herself that Ace is indeed younger than her. He was just a teen looking for some thrill. She’ll get back at them both one way or another.

The student with the old man accent raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” 

The girl seemed to pique his interest. 

The brunette snapped her fingers and the cleaning equipment were covered in the same glittery light—the same one she used the other night at Ramshackle Dorm. The cleaning utensils began to move and clean the windows, all on their own. She raised her hand and a squeegee flew into her grasp.

The student with the old man accent seemed surprised with her magic. “Oh my, it seems you have a very good control of your magic.” He praised her while she began to help wipe the windows despite her magic already doing the work for her. She was still a first-year in his eyes and yet she was able to control all these equipment without breaking a single sweat. Classes hasn’t even started and she was already able to manipulate her magic like this. “It’s a mystery as to why the Mirror of Darkness did not sort you into Diasomnia.” He chuckled.

“Yeah… I wonder why—“ Hikari laughed nervously before sneezing from the dust raining down on her. “ _ Geez _ ! When was the last time they cleaned this place?! It’s so dusty!” She moved back a few steps, the squeegee still in hand.

The student also moved back. 

There was a loud noise when the cafeteria doors were slammed open. 

Hikari turned around and spotted both Ace and Deuce by the door. Grim was running away from them as they kept on firing their magic at the cat. “Ace, Deuce and Grim? What are they doing now?” She wondered, though her heart was still racing from the jumpscare.

“Damn! He keeps running around!” Ace clicked his tongue.

Grim jumped onto the table before using the floating object as platforms to perch himself on the chandelier. “Nyahaha! Can’t catch me!” 

“Climbing the chandelier just makes you a coward!” Deuce shouted at the cat taunting them from above on the chandelier. “I still haven’t learned any flying magic... We need an idea…” the two boys began to brainstorm.

“What are  _ you _ doing?” Hikari asked from behind them, a hand on her hip. 

Ace turned around at the sound of her voice. “Oi, you! Control your damn racoon! That thing wanted to ditch detention!” He shouted as he pointed a finger accusingly at Grim. 

Hikari rolled her eyes. “Oh, really? Wasn’t that what you were trying to do earlier?” She scowled, giving Ace the stink eye. 

“Now’s not the time to bring that up!” Ace argued back. He turned to look at Deuce when his fellow roommate got an idea. “Oh? It looks like you’ve got an idea—wait why are you pointing your magical pen at me?!” He slowly backed away when he saw Deuce pointing his magical pen at him.

Instinctively, Hikari also inched away from the target. 

“You’re joking right? Whoa whoa whoa I’m floating!” Ace struggled to keep his feet on the floor, but it proved to be difficult when Deuce didn’t cancel the spell. Hikari covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing at Ace’s misery. He caught her expression and glared at her. “You think this is funny?! Seriously, stop this insane guy from throwing me! He’s your friend, isn’t he?!” He shouted at her. 

Hikari cleared her throat. She wasn’t that petty. “Ace is right, Deuce. There must be another way to get Grim to come down—“ 

“Make sure you catch him alright?!” It was already too late to stop Deuce from his plans. Hikari could only watch as Ace was sent hurling towards Grim. The orange-haired boy did manage to grab Grim, but he also managed to somehow break the chandelier’s shackle—probably from the extra weight. 

The chandelier came crashing down, breaking into millions of pieces. Pieces of wood and candles scattered across the floor as clouds of dust covered the area.

Deuce coughed into his elbow. “Crap! I wasn’t thinking where you’d land after you caught him…” he said as Ace pushed himself up.

“Are you an idiot?! You’re lucky I’m not injured or anything!” Ace shouted loudly as he stood up, marching towards where Deuce and Hikari were standing. He looked at the damage and cringed. “Ughhh—oh man! If the headmaster finds out about the chandelier we’ll be —“

“If I found out about  _ what _ ?”

Behind them, there stood the Headmaster with his arms crossed and lips in a deep frown.

Ace swallowed. “Oh… Headmaster…”

“What in the world are you doing?!” Crowley shouted.

“Aaah my head is spinning…” Grim laid on the floor, completely oblivious to what was happening around him. 

The Headmaster continued, “As if damaging the statue of the Great Seven wasn’t enough, now you destroyed the chandelier?! I’m no longer going to tolerate this!” The three students looked down, ashamed of themselves. “You left me with no choice… All of you are expelled!”

“What?!” The three of them exclaimed in unison.

_ ‘This mission ended quickly…’ _ Hikari cringed. Master Yen Sid would be disappointed to know if the mission was over within a day with no results at all. He entrusted this mission to her and she came back empty handed. Of course, Riku and the others would scold her for acting childish and giving into her selfish thoughts. 

“No! Please forgive me just this once! There’s still something I need to do at this school!” Deuce begged for forgiveness, trying to convince the Headmaster to let them off the hook. 

Crowley wasn’t affected by Deuce’s puppy look. “You can blame yourself for behaving like a fool.

Hikari decided to back Deuce up. “We’ll do anything to make it up! We’ll even pay for the repairs too!” 

“This chandelier was no ordinary chandelier. It was an  _ enchanted _ chandelier.” Crowley emphasized, staring at the three students sternly. “It was powered by magic and its candles were never supposed to burn out for all eternity! This was a magical artifact crafted by a legendary Meister. Considering its historical value, it would be worth no less than one billion madols. Could you make  _ that _ up?” He asked again.

Crowley was certain even if the three students combine their savings together to pay off the compensation , they still won’t be able to pay it off. 

“O—One billion madols? That’s—“ Ace spluttered. “But can’t you just fix it quickly with magic, Headmaster?”

“Magic is not all that powerful.” Crowley sighed. “What’s more, the magic stone, which could otherwise be called as the heart of the artifact has been broken.”

“Damn…” Ace’s voice seemed to crack with disappointment.

Deuce balled his hands up into fists. “Damn it… What was I thinking? How am I going to tell my mother?” He mumbled under his breath.

“There might be a way—“ Crowley began. 

“What?!”

“The magic stone that was used in this chandelier can be mined at the Dwarfs’ Mine.” Crowley tapped his cane on the floor, glancing to look at the broken chandelier. He turned to look at the three troublemakers again. “If you were to obtain a stone that has the same properties, it might be possible to repair the damages.”

Deuce’s eyes seem to light up in determination. “I’ll go and get that magic stone!”

“However I’m not certain there are any magic stones left in the mines.” Crowley stopped the three before doing anything brash. “It’s been quite some time since its closure. There is a high chance all the magic stones have already been dug up.” 

“I’ll do anything if it means I won’t have to be expelled!” Deuce was willing to try anything and so were the other two.

Hikari didn’t know the stones within the Dwarfs’ Mine were magical. They were shiny and pretty, of course, but magical? She wasn’t sure. She could go and check the Dwarfs’ Mine at Dwarf Woodlands if they can’t find any stones within Twisted Wonderland. She didn’t want to get expelled and she didn’t want the other two to get expelled as well, no matter how annoying one of them is. 

Crowley gave a nod. “Very well then. I shall wait only one night. If you do not bring me the stone by tomorrow morning, you all will be expelled. Do I make myself clear?”

“Right! Thank you!”

“You can get to the Dwarfs’ Mine in an instant if you use the Mirror of Darkness in the Mirror chamber.” 

Ace sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Ah geez, guess I don’t have a choice. Let’s get that stone!”

They all quickly made their way to the Mirror Chamber. Hikari took Grim along since he was involved in the whole fiasco as well. They arrived at their destination with no time to spare. 

Hikari walked behind the two boys, staring at the Magic Mirror with her brows raised. The spirit within the mirror wasn’t seen and there was no reflection. Grim jumped out of her arms to come closer to the mirror, hissing at it. 

“Mirror of Darkness! Lead us to the Dwarfs’ Mine!”

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The moment they arrived, Hikari was stunned to see the once beautiful and colorful forest was now silent and wilting. 

“This is the Dwarfs’ Mine… A long time ago, this place seemed to be a bustling place to mine for magic stones.” Deuce spoke as he glanced around. The boy seemed rather nervous in the silent environment.

“It feels like something will come out…” Grim felt a shiver down his spine and he inched closer to Hikari, clutching onto her leg for comfort. 

The brunette sort of expected to see the dwarfs again within Twisted Wonderland, maybe an alternate version of the little men. It was just last week she visited Dwarf Woodlands. She knew Twisted Wonderland was a world on its own, different from the other seven worlds, but to see the same setting all dark and abandoned was definitely a depressing sight.

Deuce sighed. “I’m… sorry for dragging you into this mess, Hikari. It was my fault the chandelier broke.” He apologized to the brunette. 

Hikari smiled, giving a comforting pat on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Deuce. This was my fault too.” She said as they continued their walk across the forest. “C’mon, don’t be so down. I’m a hundred percent positive we can bring the magic stone back to the Headmaster.” She encouraged with a toothy grin across her lips. 

If they can’t find the magic stone here, she can just go back to Dwarf Woodlands and ask for one.

“Yes, you’re right! Let’s not waste anymore time!” Deuce nodded.

Ace walked a bit further than the group. “Hey, look! There’s a house over there. Let’s ask them.”

The keyblade wielder felt her heart drop. It was the Dwarfs’ home for sure. The tiny house. The tiny bridge over a small stream. They were all rotting from age as the building was covered with overgrown plants. She waited beside Ace as Deuce knocked on the tiny door twice.

“Good evening! Hmm? There’s no one home…” The door creaked open and Deuce peaked inside. The house was dark and covered in dust. Cobwebs were all over the place. They all went inside and were surprised with how miniature the interior was. “This place…”

“Ack! This place is dustier than the Ramshackle dorm! Pweh!” Grim spitted out as he walked into a spiderweb. 

Ace picked up a small wooden, lifting it up with ease. “The chairs and tables are so small… Are they for kids?” He coughed a few times when the dust flew everywhere. He placed the chair down and began to count the number of chairs in the room. “One two three... seven?! That’s so many! Man, these parents must’ve seriously loved kids…” he commented.

Of course, Hikari knew this house belonged to the tiny little men and not kids. She came closer to the tiny staircase and placed her hand over it, swiping the dust coating the railing. It seemed as if the house had been abandoned for decades. Perhaps the dwarfs here decided to find another house to live in?

“I’m sure this house was full of activity when the Dwarfs’ Mine was still in business.” Deuce said as he waited by the door.

Ace pushed himself up after looking at the kitchen. “Well! I guess there’s no point looking here anymore. If there’s even any magic stones left, they’d probably be in the mines.” He dusted off his hands before joining Deuce. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Dwarfs’ Mine—Mine Entrance— 

Grim clinged onto Hikari’s ankle again. “Y—You guys wanna go into that pitch-black cave?!” He squeaked, staring at the two boys with disbelief.

Hikari gave him an obvious look. “Well, how else are we supposed to look for the stone?” She asked.

Ace snorted. “What? Ya scared? Lame!” He laughed, taunting the little demon-cat.

“Ace…” Hikari gave him a pointed look. Everything started with these two teasing each other. The situation was already bad, they don’t need it to turn for the worse. 

“What? I was only teasing!”

“I’m not scared!” Grim dashed out between Hikari’s legs and stood in front of the Mine’s entrance. “Since I’m so great, I’ll be the leader! All of you, follow me!” He began to walk inside with no source of light except for the fire from his ears.

Hikari sighed before following after the familiar. She raised her hand and a sphere of light gathered in her palm, brightly illuminating the dark mine. She was definitely familiar with the mine’s interior. She could already know which way was which to the main mine area. Everything was the same as the one in Dwarf Woodlands. 

“Wait!” Deuce suddenly stopped. The three looked over towards him, giving confusing looks. “There’s something here.”

_ “It’s been ten years since we have guests!” _

_ “Why don’t you kids make yourself at home here? For eternity!” _

“Gah!” Grim jumped in fright when something came out from the ground. He fell into Ace’s arms as they watched ghosts begin to appear one by one. “Ghosts again?! Is everywhere haunted?!” He hissed, clinging into Ace’s blazer. 

“Ouch! Stop! Your claws!” Ace tried to pry the cat off of him. “Geez! Just calm down, you idiot!” 

“We don’t have time to deal with these ghosts! We’ll run till we lose the ghosts! C’mon!” Deuce instructed and began to run the opposite direction with Ace following behind him. 

Hikari shot the sphere of light in her palms towards the direction of the ghosts. It hit a few ghosts directly, making them disappear in an instant. She decided to follow Deuce’s plan while exterminating the ghosts. She couldn’t leave the two younger teens roaming around in the abandoned mine alone. 

The keyblade wielder quickly caught up to them and began to shoot light as she ran to shake off all of the ghosts. Ace and Deuce seem to follow her plan and begin to use their magic to scare off the ghosts as well. 

“Over there!” Hikari pointed her finger to the corner. “We’ll shake them off there!” 

They all turned at the corner and quickly hid behind the barrels and broken cart, simultaneously canceling out all their magic to prevent being caught. They stayed behind the barrels for a few minutes, holding down their breaths. After they were sure there were no ghosts around, they came out of their spot, releasing the breath they had been holding.

“I didn’t know there would be ghosts hanging around!” Ace sat on the ground, trying to catch his breath. 

Deuce stood up despite his rapidly beating heart. “This’ll never end if we keep running into them. Keep moving!” He said a little too loudly.

Ace gave a scowl. “I’d rather you stop acting tough and ordering me around! This would’ve never happened in the first place if you weren’t acting like a complete idiot!” He accused.

Deuce glared at him as well. “If we’re going down with this, this would’ve never happened if you don’t skip out on cleaning!” He shouted, equally frustrated and tired.

“Okay, well, this furball over here is the one who burned the statue of the Queen of Hearts!” Ace began pointing fingers to Grim.

“What?! You were making fun of me so that’s your fault! Besides! Hikari over here was the one who started the fight too!” Grim turned to look at the brunette who was giving him a dirty look. 

“The blame game, huh?” Hikari sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Let’s just agree this is all our fault, okay? We can’t waste our time arguing here!” She scolded. 

“Hikari’s right… We’re going to get expelled if we don’t bring back the magic stone by morning!” Deuce shouted.

“That’s why we should’ve split up from the start! Man, I’m pissed off.” Ace grumbled under his breath.

“You two...” Hikari gave a defeated look. Talking with these hot headed teens was impossible. Were she and Sora like this when they were younger? 

Grim’s ear twitched. “Did you hear something?”

_ “...eve…” _

Deuce turned to look at the direction where he heard the noise. “It seems like it’s getting closer…”

_ “...le..ave…” _

“Hey, shine some of your light.” Ace ordered and Hikari did as told. 

Heavy footsteps seem to echo in the dark tunnel. 

From the shadows, a monster appeared.  _ “LEAVE!!!” _

“Monster!!!” They all shouted in unison, jumping into their senses. 

Hikari pulled Ace and Deuce further back, away from the monster. “Snap out of it!” She dragged them away with Grim close by. 

Deuce was the first one to snap out of it. He quickly grabbed his magical pen and began to cast random spells at the monster, but all of his attacks either missed its target or had no effect at all. 

Ace clicked his tongue as he took out his magical pen as well. “Stand back if you can’t aim, Mr. Stick in the mud! I’ll stop it!” His aim was better, but his magic didn’t do any damage to the ink monster. 

“Look out!” Hikari quickly grabbed Ace and pulled him away when the Monster swung its pickaxe in his direction. The pickaxe hit the wall next to them and it crumbled with the brute force. “Over here!” She decided to take lead and get the two teens and Grim out of danger.

“Wait! That light!” Deuce blinked when he spotted something glowing behind the Monster. “At the end of the tunnel! There’s something shining!” He exclaimed, making Ace and Hikari stop running to look back at him. 

“Gah! Deuce! Don’t stop! You’re gonna get killed!” Grim shouted.

Ace caught on what Deuce was trying to say. “Could it be the magic stone?!” 

At the mention of the magic stone, the ink Monster seems to move more violently, swinging its pickaxe in every direction.  _ “Leave…! Leave! Leave!” _

Ace covered his head as small debris fell from the ceiling of the mine. “Damn it! We’re done for at this rate! Let’s get out of here!” He glanced around, before stopping to look at Hikari. “Which way was the exit?!”

“Deuce! C’mon!” Hikari had to pull and drag on the boy’s arm to make him move. She also grabbed Grim by his bow and began to run into one of the tunnels—opposite of the monster. Ace was running close by. She has no intention of running away from the monster, but she won’t allow these inexperienced students to handle the matter either. She stopped and the other two stopped as well, panting heavily. “We should be safe… for now.” 

“Don’t tell me we’re lost?” Ace wheezed out. He slumped down to sit on the ground, a frustrated sigh escaping his lips. “I didn’t sign up for this… No one said anything about a monster!” He threw a pebble away, scowling. 

Deuce took a deep breath. “It didn’t look like any ghosts… what was that thing?”

Ace gave an exasperated look. “Let’s just give up and go home… I’d rather get expelled than fight that thing.” He said in defeat.

Hikari understood his feelings completely. Anyone would’ve thought that. 

Deuce’s eyes widened at Ace’s words. “What?! Don’t screw with me! I’d rather die than face expulsion!” He shouted, his loud voice echoing in the mine. Hikari was looking in the other direction of the mine, opting to use another route to get the teens out while she took care of the monster alone. She looked back at the two teens when they were being too loud. “There’s a magic stone right in front of us and you want to go home?!” He curled his fingers tightly, glaring daggers at the orange-haired teen.

“Hah! Big talk for a guy who has worse magic control than me! Go alone if you want, I’ll stay here.” Ace crossed his arms, remaining firm where he was sitting. 

“Fine! Then go ahead and stay there cowering like a spineless coward!!” Deuce held his fist, cracking his knuckles under his fingers. 

Grim blinked owlishly, surprised to see Deuce’s true character. “Deuce… did your personality just switch or something?” He asked, standing a bit further away from the dark blue-haired teen. 

Deuce snapped out of his trace. “Sorry, my bad... I lost my composure for a bit.” He apologized, toning his voice down. He took a deep breath before going towards the direction they came from. “At any rate, I’m going back to fight that thing. I’ll figure out how to beat it and come back with the magic stone.” He announced.

“Deuce, wait.” Hikari stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t beat that thing alone.” 

Ace agreed with the brunette’s words. “Hikari’s right! There’s a fine line between being a complete idiot and being rational!” He criticized. While Deuce was dead set on fighting the monster to get the magic stone and not get expelled, Ace was thinking a bit more rationally than him. The monster was obviously stronger than them. A group of first years could never beat a monster alone. “You couldn’t land a single hit earlier and it’s just going to end up the same, y’know?” He said, but the way he was saying it seemed like he was provoking Deuce.

“What did you just say?!” Deuce was easily provoked. 

“There they go again…” Grim sighed, shaking his head at the two teen’s antics. “Oi, Hikari do something about them.”

The keyblade wielder sighed deeply before approaching the two younger teens. Without giving them a warning, she tweaked their ears, pulling them down since they were taller than her.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”

“Stop that!” Ace placed a hand on his ear, glaring at the girl when she finally released their ears from her deadly pinch. “What was that for?! That hurt, y’know?!”

Hikari crossed her arms. “Now’s not the time to be fighting each other.” She scolded the two boys. She had been in many dangerous situations that required her to think fast and find a way out. Most of the time, she was alone and didn’t have a team to help her. When she does go with someone, they try to work together as best as they can to finish the job. “Neither of us could do anything back there.” She said harshly, stating the fact. 

The keyblade wielder knew she could handle the monster alone, but these two needed more help than she thought. They need to put their differences aside and work together.

“Well, what are we supposed to do, huh?” Ace cuts in.

“Let’s try to work together.” Hikari said with a smile, putting her hand in front of her.

Ace stared at Hikari’s waiting hand in disgust. “You mean we have to get along and work together? No way!” He gagged and the brunette gave him a look. What was wrong with hand-stacks as a symbol of a team working together? But still, Hikari never placed her hand down. She was still waiting for Ace, Deuce and Grim to put their hands and paw above hers. “This is so cheesy. You have no problem saying such things, huh?” He crossed his arms, glaring sideways at Deuce.

Deuce looked away, equally disgusted by the thought of working together with Ace. “Agreed, there’s no way I’m working together with this guy.”

Grim moved closer and Hikari crouched down. “But it feels way lamer to get expelled on the first day of school.” He placed his tiny paw above her hand and glanced to look at Ace and Deuce.

Deuce stiffened. “That’s…”

Ace let out a frustrated sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I get it! I get it!” He crouched down as well and placed his hand above Grim’s paw. “We just have to work together and get it done, right?”

Deuce followed Ace’s lead, crouching down and placing his hand over his. “Just this once…” he exchanged looks with Ace and the boy gave a nod in return. “Do you have a plan?” 

Hikari smirked. “I thought you’d never asked.” 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Grim gulped, “Would this really work?” He asked as he waited by the end of the tunnel. Hikari volunteered to be the bait for the monster and lure it towards them. “Just hearing all those noises is making me feel sca—nervous.” 

Five minutes passed and they were starting to get worried. They could hear all the ruckus from the dark tunnel, followed by the monster’s screams and cry of anger. 

“Do you think he’s okay?” Deuce swallowed as he waited, his back pressed against the mine’s wall. 

Ace tightened his grip on the magical pen. “He seems confident.”

Grim tilted his head. “He? What are you guys—!!”

“Grim! Ace! Get ready!” Hikari shouted from inside the pitch black tunnel. At the mention of their names, Ace and Grim stiffened and positioned themself to their spots. The brunette came running out of the tunnel and soon after, the monster came out. “I’ll leave it to you two!” She jumped over to the left, dodge rolling to safety. 

Ace pointed his magical pen at the ink monster. “Alright! Leave it to me! Extra-Large Gust!” He casted and a large whirlwind appeared, trapping the ink monster inside. 

“And Lord Grim’s special fire!” Grim took a deep breath and blew fire directly at Ace’s whirlwind, creating a fire whirl. 

The ink monster let out an ear-piercing scream.

“How’s that?! I can even turn Grim’s shabby flames into a fire tornado!” Ace grinned from ear to ear, proud of his own magic.

“It’s not shabby! Ugh, every word that comes out of your mouth pisses me off!” Grim huffed. 

“Deuce!”

Deuce took a few deep breaths. “Calm down… Focus… Think of the biggest, heaviest thing I know…” he chanted to himself, placing a hand over his rapidly beating heart. Hikari had done her part and so has Ace and Grim. It was all up to him. “Come forth, cauldron!” 

A giant cauldron appeared right above the monster and as gravity took over, the cauldron fell on top of the monster, immobilizing it. 

“Great work, Deuce!” Hikari cheered. She was proud the three managed to work together and defeat the ink monster. She had volunteered to be the bait at first. Though Ace and Grim had no problem agreeing with her being bait, Deuce was against it. She reassured that it was fine. It was her chance to beat the ink monster with the keyblade without anyone knowing she was a keyblade wielder. “Now c’mon! Let’s get that magic stone and go home!” She motioned her hand for the boys to hurry.

“Roger!” The three followed suit, leaving the ink monster behind.

_ “Mine…! Leave!! LEAVE!” _

They ignored the ink monster and quickly searched for the magic stone. It took them a few minutes, picking up random jewels to examine if it was the magic stone or not. Finally, Deuce picked up a stone with a gradient color. 

“This is it! The magic stone!” Deuce exclaimed, raising it up for the rest to see. 

_ “Give it… back…! Mine!” _

“Deuce! Behind you!” Hikari raised her magic pen and shot her magic through it. She blasted a sphere of light at Deuce’s direction. As it got close to the boy, the sphere burst into a bright light—turning into a barrier to protect her classmate. The pickaxe collided with the barrier and the barrier counterattacked, pushing the monster back with a blast. “Are you okay?!” She quickly helped the boy up. 

“That thing could still move even after our combo attacks?!” Grim jumped into Ace’s arms.

“We got the stone! Let’s just get outta here!” Ace shouted and the others ran around the monster, heading straight for the exit. “Shit! It’s chasing us!” He quickened his pace when the monster began to chase.

_ “Give… it back!” _ The ink monster swung its pickaxe around. 

“Shoot! If this keeps up, it’s gonna catch up soon!” Deuce shouted. They were out of the Dwarfs’ Mine and yet there was still no signs of the ink monster giving up chase. 

“We can’t lead it back to the gate!” Hikari said as she skidded to a stop, deciding to face the monster then and there. Ace, Deuce and Grim’s safety was more important than her identity of being a wielder in a world of villains. “Let’s finish it here!” 

“Aaggghhh! Fine! Let’s end this right now!!” Ace let out a battle cry as he blasted a gush of wind with his magical pen. 

Combined with Deuce’s never ending rain of cauldrons and Grim’s fire, the ink monster finally stopped giving chase. 

The ink monster’s scream grew louder, agitated by the attacks. 

Hikari dashed towards the ink monster, summoning the keyblade on the way. She leaped up higher than the ink monster and drew her keyblade back. She twisted her body in the air and came down, slashing the monster downwards. The brunette landed safely on the ground as she dismissed her keyblade. She jumped back to a safe distance as the monster fell onto its knees, disappearing into nothing but black smoke. 

Ace huffed, “We did it…?”

Deuce blinked. “We… won?”

“We actually beat it?” Grim’s jaw dropped in disbelief. 

“Hooray!!” The three of them cheered loudly to the heavens. The keyblade wielder couldn’t help but laugh. They were pretty cute celebrating their success like that. She joined their little victory celebration. Ace raised both of his hands and they all high-fived each other, big grins and smiles across their faces. “Victory high five!”

“Well, you guys sure are getting along well.” Hikari covered her mouth, hiding the grin behind her hand. “It’s the beginning of a lovely friendship!” 

Ace, Deuce and Grim quickly distanced themselves. 

“It’s not like that!” Deuce denied with a slight tinged color of red across his cheeks. Despite the lack of sunlight in the dark forest, the brunette could perfectly see how flustered he was. 

Ace agreed. “Could you stop saying weird things?” 

“Yeah! It’s making me feel uncomfortable with how cheesy your words are!” Grim huffed, crossing his arms. 

The orange-haired teen sighed. “I guess making excuses is pretty lame. I hate to admit it, but we won thanks to your plan.” He admitted with a small smile. 

“We got the stone because you gave us instructions.” Deuce nodded his head. He took a few steps closer and shook Hikari’s hand, relief across his features. “We can prevent our expulsion… I’m so relieved…” he said. 

Hikari returned the gesture and smiled. “I’m glad we’re all alright.”

Ace stretched his arms above his head and a loud pop was heard. He sighed. “Man… I’m beat! Let’s go home already!”

Grim’s stomach growled loudly, followed by the other three. “I’m starving from using magic! Hmm what’s this?” He began to sniff the air and ran towards where the ink monster disappeared. 

The three followed the cat and Deuce kneeled down to examine the stone in Grim’s paws. “What’s this? Remnants from that monster?”

“A magic stone?” Hikari leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees, observing the pitch black stone. She was unfamiliar with magic stones in Twisted Wonderland. Maybe she could bring her magical pen to Master Yen Sid and have him evaluate what it is. 

“But I’ve never seen a pitch black stone like this before…” Deuce murmured as he placed a hand on his chin. 

“But this smells really good!” Grim took a good whiff, holding the stone close to his nose. 

Ace gagged. “No way!”

Grim giggled, “This has to be candy the monster was hiding! I can’t hold it anymore! Imma eat it~” he placed the magic stone inside his mouth, chewing it with a loud crunching noise.

Hikari quickly grabbed the cat. “Ewww! Spit it out! Spit! Spit!” She tried to pry the cat’s mouth open to grab the object, but he won’t budge. 

“Unbelievable!” Ace made loud gagging noises again. “You shouldn’t eat things off the ground.”

The cat swallowed the chewed stone. “It’s so delicious!!!”

“EH?!” The three teens exclaimed, their eyes as wide as saucers. 

“It tasted so sweet! Just like a whole field of flowers blooming in my mouth!” Grim gushed happily, his tail wagging left and right. The brunette holding him gave a mixed look of disgust and awe. Was it really candy? It was impossible to swallow, let alone take a bite out of a crystal.

“Monsters really do have a different taste from us, huh…” Ace stared at Grim with disgust.

“Probably… but most people wouldn’t even put a mysterious object in their mouth.” Deuce said. 

Grim grinned. “Don’t worry, my stomach isn’t weak like yours!” 

Ace crossed his arms as he shook his head. “Then don’t come crawling to us when you get a stomachache later.” 

“Either way… Let’s go back and give this magic stone to the Headmaster.” 

Hikari was glad things ended smoothly. The three looked tired and dirty from running and fighting the ink monsters, but at least they were all alright. She could never forgive herself if they got hurt because of her carelessness. It was indeed hard for her to not use her keyblade when danger comes. 

The ink monster, she confirmed, was not a Heartless. She would have to look more into the monster thing later when they return to the campus. Of course, she would also need to look more into the Dwarfs’ Mine. There was a lot of info that she needed to search and report back to Yen Sid. 

“Finally! We’re back!” Ace sighed in relief as they arrived back at the Mirror Chamber. The dark room was a much better sight than the Dwarfs’ Mine. “Let’s find the Headmaster and give him the stone.”

Hikari was the last one to leave the Mirror Chamber. She glanced over her shoulder, looking at the Mirror of Darkness or as she calls it, the Magic Mirror. The spirit within the mirror finally showed itself, making a brief eye contact with the wielder before the door completely shut behind them. She narrowed her eyes. The Magic Mirror was also something she needed to look into. 

“Headmaster! Headmaster Crowley!” Deuce called out to the headmaster as they ran down the hallways. The sun was beginning to set. The old grandfather clock in the hall was ticking, showing the time. It was around five in the evening. They had been gone for around five hours. They arrived at the cafeteria and saw the Headmaster with their homeroom teacher. It seemed they were talking about the broken chandelier. “Headmaster Crowley!”

“Hmm? Oh, it’s the troublemakers.” Crowley addressed the quartet as he turned around. 

Divus Crewel, their homeroom teacher, glared at them. “How dare you naughty little pups cause this much trouble?” He frowned with a sharp look across his eyes. 

Ace gulped. “W—We didn’t mean it! We swear!” He waved his hand in front of him, backing away as Crewel raised his crop, tapping it on his palm a few times. 

Crowley tilted his head. “Why are all of you so filthy and out of breath?” He asked as he observed the students’ appearance. 

“We got the magic stone just like you asked!” Hikari grinned and she turned to look at Deuce, who had the magic stone with him. The boy took out the magic stone from his pocket and showed it to the teachers. “Now you can fix the chandelier!” She said happily. 

Crowley’s and Crewel’s eyes widened. 

“Eh?! You really went to the Dwarfs’ Mine to find the magic stone?!” Crowley said in complete shock, it was evident in his expression despite the mask covering half of his face. 

“Huh?!” The quartet blinked confusedly. Were they not supposed to go there and get the magic stone? “What… do you mean?” Deuce asked.

“I didn’t think you would actually go there… You’d not only go there, but you also came back with the magic stone.” Crowley cleared his throat, his eyes watching the three students and Grim. He took a step forward and took the magic stone from Deuce’s hand. “While you were away, I quietly completed the paperwork for your expulsion.”

Hikari’s jaw dropped. “Ehhhh?! No way!” 

Grim mimicked her expression. “What?! The nerve of this guy!” He huffed angrily. He wasn’t a student at Night Raven College, but if Hikari was kicked out of the school, that meant he would also be kicked out. “He broke our deal while we were off fighting some crazy beast!” He hissed.

“Beast?” Crewel echoed, his perfectly trimmed eyebrows furrowed in thought. 

Ace nodded his head. “There was a monster there! It was super gross and crazy strong! It was awful!” He told, shivering as he recalled the image of the ink monster. 

Hikari decided to try and fish out more info about the monster. “It’s like… ink? I don’t know… it was dark and we couldn’t see well.” She added as she tried to explain, pretending to be clueless. The three others nodded their heads in unison as well. 

“But we beat it and got the magic stone!” Grim said.

“Maybe it was what caused the mine to be abandoned?” Deuce added, a hand on his chin. 

Crowley and Crewel’s expression turned serious, “Could you explain in more detail?”

They decided to move to a more private place, the Headmaster’s Office. 

The long day has yet to end.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
Trouble after another!

* * *

“I see…”

Hikari and the others were brought to the Headmaster’s office. They were asked to tell everything that happened in the Dwarfs’ Mine. Ace and Grim were the ones doing all the talking while Deuce sometimes added a few details. On the other hand, Hikari just affirmed everything they said. The boys didn’t mention anything about her ability to summon a giant key and she couldn’t help but sigh in relief. 

“A mysterious monster in the Dwarfs’ Mine...” Crowley hummed, a hand on his chin. Crewel was standing beside the desk, staring at his students with his arms crossed. The three students and the cat nodded their heads. “And then the four of you worked together to defeat the monster and bring back the magic crystal, correct?” He looked down to the magic crystal on his desk.

Ace and Deuce exchanged looks of disgust. “We didn’t really work together.” the orange-haired teen rubbed the back of his neck as he averted his gaze.

Deuce cleared his throat. “It was more like our goals were the same.” he corrected the headmaster.

Hikari grinned from ear to ear, “We work really well together! It’s almost as if we’ve known each other for years!” she said to tease them further and all three boys looked at her with flustered looks. Both teachers stared at the group with an amused look. Clearly what they were saying contradicted each other. “Isn’t that right?” she smiled at them. 

Ace’s expression was filled with disgust. “Gross! Stop saying weird things already!” 

“I’m guessing you’re the type to say cheesy things.” Grim huffed, giving a deadpan look at the girl holding him in her arms. 

“What are you talking about? I’m only saying the truth.” The brunette simply shrugged with a smile on her lips. 

“Ohhh ohh—!” Suddenly the Headmaster began to bawl his eyes out, wailing and crying. He covered his face, despite the mask already covering his eyes. The students and Grim stiffened at the sudden change, surprised when the full-grown man in front of them started to cry while Crewel rolled his eyes at his superior’s childish behavior. 

“What’s with this guy?! He’s an adult but he’s crying a river!” Grim said, staring at the headmaster weirdly. 

Crowley took the tissue Crewel was holding half-heartedly for him. “In all my years as a headmaster, I never thought there will come a day where students go hand in hand and work together!” he blew into the tissue loudly. 

Deuce took a step further from Ace. “What?! I didn’t hold this guy’s hand!”

Ace did the same, distancing himself from Deuce and Hikari. “Gross! I would never do that!” On the contrary, they did stack their hands on top of each other. The shortest of the three gave him another teasing look, but decided to keep the comment to herself. “Geez, how old are you anyway, Headmaster?!” 

“I’m just overwhelmed with emotions!” Crowley dabbed the tissue on the corner of his eyes, stopping the tears from streaming down his cheeks. 

Crewel sighed, pressing his fingers on his temples. “Students of NRC are young pups called by the Mirror of Darkness. However, most are a superior class which makes them prideful and egotistical troublesome little puppies. They don’t even have the slightest thought to work with others, making many of them selfish and self-centered.” 

Hikari was amazed at how honest her homeroom teacher was. It’s no doubt that only students with the potential to become a great mage were the only ones chosen to attend this school. She just hoped those students would repent from their current attitudes, because being prideful and selfish won’t get them anywhere. 

“You’re not saying anything good, huh…” Grim sighed.

“There’s no doubt! The Mirror of Darkness certainly made the right choice!” Crowley abruptly stood up from his chair. “Not only did you manage to get these boys to work together, but you also managed to tame the familiar! Ah, how wonderful!” He praised and Hikari pointed a finger to herself, looking at Deuce who shrugged. 

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m  _ not _ a familiar!” Grim hissed as he trashed in Hikari’s arms, wriggling himself out of her grasp. She released him and the cat sat on the floor right beside her, huffing and puffing at the Headmaster. “I’m gonna be a student here one day, so watch me!” 

Crowley walked around his desk, standing a few steps away from his students. “Yes, yes! Which is why—Trapola. Spade. Hikari,” all three of them straightened their posture when each of their names were called. Along with rescinding your expulsion I shall give Grim the chance to attend Night Raven College as a student.”

“Eh?!” Everyone, including Crewel was shocked with Crowley's decision. 

Crewel crossed his arms. “Crowley, you can’t be serious.” he said, disbelief clearly written across his features.

“Oh, I’m a hundred percent serious!” Crowley was smiling brightly in the midst of confusion. Hikari didn’t exactly expect the Headmaster would allow a monster to attend his school so easily. He was so against it at first when they met. What truly changed his mind? “You have proven to me that you possess enough talent to become a wizard, Grim.” he said, glancing down to look at the cat. 

Grim’s eyes started to water, filled with emotions. “I…. I can go to this academy too? Not as a ghost exterminator, but as a student?” he asked with teary-eyes.

Crowley nodded his head in affirmation. “Yes, but on the condition that you are under Hikari’s supervision! I would not tolerate if another incident like today occurred again.” he said sternly with his hands on his hips. The man in charge turned to look at the brunette, along with the others, waiting for her reply. “Do we have an agreement?”

Hikari glanced down to see Grim’s hopeful and teary-eyed look. “Sure, I’ll look after ya.” she smiled, nodding her head to Crowley’s offer. Having company at the Ramshackle dorm was comforting, especially with how eerie and spooky the dorm is. They haven’t met for long, but she won’t crush his dreams to become a student of Night Raven College. She empathized with his feelings to be recognized. “Let’s get along from now on.”

“Fgnaa fnaaa—! I did it!” Grim cheered, raising his paw up above his head. He jumped back into Hikari’s arms, who caught him with ease and raised him up. 

“Well, this is unexpected.” Ace blinked, but congratulated the cat. “A monster student, cool I guess.” 

Deuce patted Grim’s head. “Congratulations.” 

“A monster attending school? I seriously don’t understand what goes in your mind…” Crewel sighed deeply. One more troublesome pup— _ kitten _ to take care of. Taking care of these troublesome trio was already a handful and it was just the first day of school. This year’s first-years were definitely a troublesome bunch. “Well then, no matter. I shall treat you the same as the other students. I will not go easy on each of you, do I make myself clear, little pups?” he took out his crop, tapping it on his palm a few times. 

“Yes, sir!” Both Hikari and Grim responded, saluting the man. 

“Now then! I shall give the symbol of your status as a student of Night Raven College, the magic crystal.” Crowley snapped his fingers and a light surrounded Grim’s collar. When the light faded, a light purple crystal was around his neck--it was in the same color as Hikari’s magical pen’s crystal. “Normally, each student will have their magic crystal in the form of a magical pen, but you wouldn’t be able to grip it properly, right? So I customized it to fit your situation! Aren’t I kind?” his glowing eyes closed, giving a close-eyed smile.

Grim turned his head to look at Hikari, showing his crystal with pride and joy. “I did it! I’m a student! I got my own crystal!”

“It suits you!” Hikari replied.

“Do you understand? Grim is not accustomed to human society, so it’s up to you to supervise and prevent him from causing anymore trouble.” Crowley said to the brunette. 

Ace hummed “Woah! Doesn’t that mean you’re a supervisor?”

“I see… there’s only the two of you in your dorm. So if you’re entrusted with supervising Grim, that makes you a prefect.” Deuce concluded. He heard Hikari’s story when they were conversing in the cafeteria. She was living at the Ramshackle dorm with the demon-cat. Of course, he was worried for her, but after a bit of explanation, he understood the situation. 

Crowley hummed. “A Prefect, you say? How fitting!” he suddenly went back to his desk and pulled something out from his drawer. He walked back towards the three students and showed the item to them all. “I do have a request and having that title makes it very convenient!” 

“I shall entrust you this,” Crowley placed the item around Hikari’s neck, carefully adjusting the strap. “This is called a  _ Ghost Camera _ .” 

“Hmm,” Crewel hummed. “I haven’t seen that thing in years.”

“This was an item used by the students of the old dorm, but due to the ghosts scaring them away, it was returned back.” Crowley explained and Hikari examined the camera with one hand. It was indeed old compared to the recent digital models. A brown-colored polaroid style camera with a lucky emblem. It was similar to her own camera in a way. “I don’t often use it either, so I shall bestow it back to the Ramshackle Dorm’s Prefect!” 

“I think I’ve heard of it from my grandma. It’s a super old magic item right?” Ace leaned closer to look at the item.

“It’s not  _ super _ old,” Crowley cleared his throat, correcting his words. “It’s true that this may have been invented during your great grandmother or great great grandmother’s time.”

Hikari raised the camera. “That… ancient, huh?”

“Ancient, but there’s a special spell cast on it.” Crowley interrupted. “It not only captures the subject's form, but also a part of their soul.” 

“...their soul?”

“We call it  _ ‘A Fragment of Remembrance’  _ or _ ‘Memory’ _ . What makes it different from all the others is that the souls of the photographer and the subject become deeply connected.” The Headmaster continued while the quartet observed the camera with curiosity. 

Hikari hummed, staring at the camera in her hand. It was definitely old and unique. Never has she heard there was a camera that captures a part of people’s souls. 

“They say it was made before the time of video cameras when people wanted to leave behind vivid memories.” Crowley said and Hikari gave a nod. “In the past people would scream  _ “Ghost!” _ in surprise when the memory came jumping out. They were paralyzed with fear at the thought of having a photo taken with this camera.” 

“A camera for freaking people out, huh?” Ace deadpanned, his left eye twitching at the thought. 

“Either way, thank you for entrusting me with this camera, Headmaster Crowley.” Hikari thanked the man, who just smiled in return. 

“Now, it’s already late. Let’s save the detailed conversation for tomorrow.” Crowley said, ending the meeting. 

“Right! Please excuse us.” Deuce bowed down, followed by Ace and Hikari before they exited the room. 

As soon as the doors were closed, the three couldn’t help but release a long sigh of relief. 

“Today was a really close call…” Hikari massaged her temples, feeling a headache coming up. It was just the first day of school and there were already so many things that happened. Got detention, almost getting expelled, fighting an evil ink monster and then getting promoted to Prefect—all in a span of a day.

“Yeah… but at least we escaped expulsion.” Deuce said, placing his hand on the back of his neck as he stretched his strained muscles. 

Ace couldn’t help but agree. “I bet my brother didn’t have it this rough when he was a freshman.”

All three of them sighed collectively again. 

Aside from the three, Grim was full of energy. He was dancing around, singing a tune. “Starting from tomorrow, I’m going to be a student like you guys!” He walked a few steps forward and faced the humans. “I’m gonna leave you all in the dust and take the top rank!” 

“That’s right… Starting from tomorrow, we’ll all begin our classes as classmates.” Deuce said.

“Well, I look forward to it.” Hikari grinned, shooting a teasing look towards Ace. “After what happened today, surely it strengthened our bonds of friendship!” She dramatically said.

“Could you please stop saying embarrassing stuff?” Ace didn’t have the energy to retort to her comment. 

Hikari puckered her lips out childishly. “Why not? We should try to get along.” She continued with her teasing, nudging Ace with her elbow. “Isn’t that right, Deuce?”

“That’s right. Even if we don’t want to, we’re going to see each other everyday.” Deuce crossed his arms, sharing a glare with Ace. After what happened today, he didn’t like Ace’s attitude. He was trying to clear his records, but this rebellious classmate almost got him expelled for Pete’s sake. “You’re lucky you and Grim have the Ramshackle dorm to yourselves. I’m in the same dorm as this jerk.” He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ace showed his disgust. “The feeling’s mutual.” He replied. “Thinking about seeing his serious smug face everyday,  _ yeah _ , no thanks. I’d rather be with this shortie instead.” He placed his elbow on Hikari’s shoulder, leaning all of his weight onto her. 

“That’s my line, Truant Ace.” Deuce frowned.

Ace waved his hand. “Sure, sure, Almost-Expelled-Crybaby-Deuce.” He started to walk away with his hands crossed behind his neck. “Alrighty! See you tomorrow, Mr. Prefect~!” He raised his hand as he glanced over his shoulder to look at the brunette.

Deuce sighed again. “Well, I should also be heading back.” The boy said politely. “I’ll see you tomorrow at class, Hikari.” He waved his hand goodbye and followed Ace back to Heartslabyul.

“See you tomorrow!” Hikari waved her hand as well. She glanced towards the open window from the second floor. She could see the courtyard and the sky clearly. The sky was painted a beautiful sunset color with a few stars already visible. In the end, she was glad everything worked out. 

“Those guys make a good combo!” Grim said as he jumped to sit on the spacious window sill. “They’re the  _ ‘fight because they’re so close’ _ type of guys!” He grinned, his tail wagging left and right happily.

Hikari leaned against the ledge. “That’s true!” She agreed. 

“We should go back to our dorm too! Starting tomorrow, we’ll start our college days!” Grim jumped down from the ledge.

“Let’s get something from the cafeteria first. I’m starving!” Hikari patted her stomach a few times. She doubted the Headmaster or the other staff has filled Ramshackle Dorm’s fridge with food—the man hasn’t even given her any budget to buy supplies for the dorm. “I’m still not sure if our dorm has food or not.” She hummed.

“Ah! That’s right!” Grim exclaimed in surprise. “Let’s get some canned tuna too!” 

“I don’t think they have those at the cafeteria.” Hikari chuckled.

When they arrived, the cafeteria was almost empty during this hour. The ghosts who worked in the kitchen were already cleaning up, packaging the leftovers in small boxes to sell at discounted prices. Hikari didn’t mind paying for Grim’s food. She has enough money to support them both. It might not be an official job in many worlds, but being a keyblade wielder has its perks. She also sometimes earn extra cash from working at Le Grand Bistrot. 

“Can we get this too?” Grim’s eyes seemed to sparkle at the honey garlic salmon. 

“Sure thing. I’ll get one too.” Hikari said. 

“Hey, hey, leave some for me too~” A familiar voice greeted them from behind. Hikari turned to look at the source as Grim was busy picking his meal with the ghosts. There was a light-brown-haired teen standing a few feet apart from them, a playful grin across his face. The Savanaclaw’s Vice Dorm Leader—Ruggie Bucchi, if she didn’t forget. “If it isn’t the Ramshackle dorm residents.” He addressed them.

“Ruggie-senpai,” Hikari greeted back. “What are you doing here?”

“The same as you, of course! The bargain prices are something I don’t want to miss, shishishishi!” Ruggie laughed behind his hand. He came closer and took a packaged burger. “By the way, I heard about the expulsion thing.”

The brunette’s eye twitched. “Ugh… Words spread fast, huh?” She sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Our expulsion got revoked, so that’s that I guess. The Headmaster was so pissed at us when we broke the chandelier.” 

Ruggie glanced up to look at the missing chandelier. “Yeah, no kidding.” He sweat-dropped. Words spread like wildfire about a couple of first years getting expelled from breaking the enchanted chandelier. Of course, Riddle was beyond furious when he found out that two of his dorm members were the ones responsible for the incident. The gossip also reached Savanaclaw. “What did you do to make him revoke your expulsion?” He asked curiously.

“He told us to get a magic crystal from the Dwarf’s Mine to replace the one we broke.” Hikari answered nonchalantly. She didn’t mind going on a side quest. It not only revoked her expulsion, but she got a glimpse of Twisted Wonderland’s version of Dwarf Woodlands. “Apparently, he was lying about it and we still went to the Dwarf’s mine to get the crystal. We got the crystal though.” 

“Eh?! You really went to the Dwarf’s Mine?!” Ruggie exclaimed in surprise, almost dropping the packaged food. He had the same reaction as the Headmaster. “That place has been abandoned for decades! Who knows what lurks inside…” 

“Actually, we did fight some ink monster.” 

Ruggie’s eyes widened. “...monster?” 

“...Yeah. It was persistent, that’s for sure.” Hikari turned to look at Ruggie who was too surprised for words. Did her senior know something about the monster? Crowley and Crewel didn’t really explain what the monster was. They just told them monsters sometimes lurk in dark and abandoned places, and told them they should avoid going to places like that. “Ruggie-senpai?” She called his name, snapping him away from his thoughts.

“Oh, sorry.” The hyena apologized. He rubbed the back of his neck. “To be honest, the best choice if you ever encounter those things is to run— _ especially _ if you’re a first-year. I’m actually impressed you guys made it out in one piece.” He complimented. 

Hikari laughed, “Noted!”

“Hey, c’mon,  _ Prefect _ ! Let’s hurry up! It’s our turn to pay!” Grim shouted as he waited for Hikari to come and pay for the meals. 

Ruggie blinked. “Prefect?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hikari quickly pulled up the same amount of madols needed to pay for the food. She took the paper bag from the ghost and turned to look at her senior again. “Sorry about that, but yeah… Apparently, the Headmaster made me a prefect since there’s only the two of us in the Ramshackle dorm.”

The hyena smirked, laughing behind his hand. “Well, well, talk about an achievement~! Congrats~!” He was next in line and he paid for his meal along with Leona’s. He raised his hand and gently patted the brunette’s shoulder. “If you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to ask your reliable senpai! I’ll be sure to help my cute kohais! At a price, of course.” 

“Ah, yeah—“

“See you later then,  _ Prefect _ ~” he was quick on his feet to dash out of the cafeteria before she could even reply.

“See ya...” Hikari waved her hand goodbye, blinking owlishly.

“Who was that? A friend of yours?” Grim asked, tilting his head up.

“I guess…” Hikari answered as the two of them made their way out of the cafeteria. “He’s our senior.”

_‘Wait… come to think of it… did Ace call me_ Mr _. Prefect instead?’_

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

_Ramshackle Dorm_

_ “If it isn’t the little girl and her kitty~” _

_ “Welcome back~” _

Hikari closed the door behind her while staring at the ghosts blankly. 

“Gyaah! It’s those ghosts again!” Grim hissed as he hid behind Hikari’s legs. 

_ “Oh come now, don’t be so scared~” _ One of the ghosts cooed, appearing behind Grim who shrieked in return.  _ “After all, we are housemates from now on!” _ It said in a sing-song voice. 

_ “We’ve been living here for decades!” _

Grim’s eyes widened. “So we can’t get rid of you?!” The cat pawed on Hikari’s pants. The girl didn’t seem to be fazed by the ghosts’ second appearance. “Hey, do something about them! I can’t get some sleep if they’re here to annoy me all day everyday!” He whined.

Hikari sighed as her hand brushed past her magical pen. “Scaring them away would be useless if this is their home.” She could see a flick of emotion come across the ghosts’ faces. She might be a ‘first-year‘, but she won’t let anyone—not even ghosts—intimidate her. She was a Keyblade Master, one of the remaining active keyblade wielders out there. “As long as they don’t bother us, I don’t mind.” She lowered her hand and proceeded to head to the kitchen.

Grim gapped. “EH?!”

The ghost followed Hikari.  _ “Oho~ Such a cool personality~”  _

“I suppose we should try to get along since we’ll be living together.” Hikari placed the paper bag on the table and leaned against it, facing two of the ghosts as the third ghost was busy chasing Grim around. “I’m Hikari, the new… Prefect of Ramshackle dorm.”

_ “Gilbert,”  _ The skinny ghost introduced.  _ “We can tell. That Ghost Camera around your neck is a dead giveaway.” _ It pointed.

The round ghost raised its tophat in formality. _ “Tedworth at your service.”  _

_ “Jasper~!” _ The shortest ghost said as Grim jumped into Hikari’s arms.  _ “It’s been awhile since we saw that camera!” _

“You’re seriously not bothered?” Grim asked with a deadpan look. Hikari looked down at him and shrugged. The bratty trio from Halloween Town was far worse than the Ramshackle dorm’s ghosts. No amount of scare or scolding or intimidation were enough to teach the pranksters a lesson. “I seriously don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours…” the cat sighed heavily.

Hikari laughed dryly. “Anyway, let’s eat.”

That seemed to lift Grim’s spirit up. “Yeah, food!”

The rest of the night went by smoothly without any mishaps. The three ghosts were actually pleasant to talk to. Hikari guessed they were just lonely and have been looking for some students to interact with. 

Like any other cats, Grim refused to take a bath since it would ruin his signature blue flames. Hikari had to force him to take one. In the end, the demon-cat enjoyed the nice warm bath. The Headmaster was kind enough to fix the bathroom of the dorm and Hikari was grateful for that. She would gladly move to Scarabia if there wasn’t any proper plumbing. 

Before heading to bed, Hikari made sure to read the history textbook for her class tomorrow. She had no clue about Twisted Wonderland’s history and it would be a repeat of the incident with Ace. But after reading the first chapter, she fell asleep with the book covering her face. 

_ Knock knock _

Hikari groggily opened her tired eyes. “Wha—?” She wondered if it was one of the ghosts calling for her. 

_ Knock knock _

The knocking didn’t stop. 

Grim stirred in his sleep. “Ugh… Is someone knocking?” He asked sleepily as he pushed himself up. He stretched his whole body, yawning. “Hey, Hikari, go check out who it is.” 

Hikari sat up and glared sleepily. “ _ We’ll _ check it out.” She emphasized. “ _ Together _ .” 

The cat groaned before tiredly getting out of the comfy bed. “Fine, fine!” He huffed. The wood beneath them creaked loudly as they walked down the old stairway. Both of them were half asleep, exhausted from the previous events. “Who in their right mind would come knocking at this hour?” The cat grumpily said, yawning.

The brunette shrugged. “We won’t know until we open the door.” She said, dragging her feet across the hallway. “Coming! Coming! Geez! Hold yer horses!” 

“It’s me, Ace! Let me in for a sec!”

Both Hikari and Grim exchanged looks. 

“Ace? What’s he doing here this late—?!” Grim’s eyes widened, all the tiredness from his eyes gone at the sight of the collar around Ace’s neck. As soon as Hikari opened the door, they quickly recognized the heart shaped collar. “Gggehhh! That collar!” 

Hikari pointed her finger at the orange-haired teen. “...why...do you have that collar?” She asked.

Ace looked completely irritated. “I’m never going back to Heartslabyul! Starting today, I’m joining your dorm!”

“Huh?”

“Wait, Ace—“ Hikari reached her hand out to stop the teen when he suddenly let himself into the dorm. His loud angry footsteps echoed through the halls, followed by Grim’s and her own as they followed after him. 

Ace huffed as he tossed the duffle bag onto the floor and took a seat on the couch. 

“That’s the same collar that red-haired upperclassmen put on me during the entrance ceremony!” Grim pointed out as he sat on the coffee table. He could see it clearly despite the only source of light was the moonlight shining through the window. When Hikari came into the room, she clapped her hands twice and the lights magically switched on. “Why do you have such a thing on?” 

Ace crossed his arms. “I ate a tart.” He mumbled under his breath, but Hikari and Grim heard him clearly.

Hikari blinked. “...a tart?” She stared at him with a puzzled look. “You’re going to have to elaborate on that…”

“I was hungry when I got back to the dorm so I checked the fridge and there were tarts inside.  _ Three _ whole tarts so…” Ace then explained how he got the collar around his neck. Turns out, he ate one of the Dorm Leader’s tarts without his permission. “ _ Laws of the Queen of Hearts, Number 89: One shall not eat a tart without the queen’s permission! _ Bleh! Total bullshit right there!” He mimicked with a mocking tone. 

Hikari exhaled a deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“You’re both in the wrong in this.” Grim deadpanned. 

“But isn’t sealing away my magic for eating tarts a bit too far?! And besides, there were like  _ three _ whole tars! Three! There’s no way he can eat them by himself!” Ace argued, expressing his distaste towards his own dorm leader. “There’s got to be a limit to how narrow minded one person can be!” 

Hikari gave him a look. “Uh-huh, sure,” she responded, rolling her eyes at him.

Ace pouted. “What with that reaction?”

“Wait a minute…” Grim’s ears twitched when he suddenly got an idea. “Could it be that those three tarts are for some sort of party? It could be for someone’s birthday party or something!” He deducted.

“Grim might be onto something…” Hikari hummed in agreement and Grim cheered at his own brilliant deduction. If the Heartslabyul dorm was based on the Queen of Hearts and her reign over Wonderland, then there must be a similar party to the Unbirthday Party. “If it was for a party then that might explain why he was so angry with you. Did you apologize yet?”

Ace’s words were caught in his throat for a moment. “Uh… I honestly thought you would agree with me that the Prefect was being tyrannical…”

The keyblade wielder sighed. Crewel wasn’t wrong when he said the boys at Night Raven College were self-centered and troublesome. She stayed together with the restoration committee for almost a year. It was like a second home to her. Sure, Yuffie and herself stole each others’ food or any other food in the fridge, but they always buy something to replace what they took either by mistake or intentionally. 

“You’re at fault for stealing the tart in the first place!” Grim repeated the same words to drill it into Ace’s thick skull. “Grudges over food are the worst, ya know?”

Hikari nodded in agreement. “Just apologize and buy him another tart as an apology.” 

“Where on earth am I going to find a tart at this hour?! Whatever… I just have to apologize tomorrow, right?” Ace finally caved into Hikari’s and Grim’s advice. It was probably because the annoyed and tired looks they were giving too. “So? Where can I sleep for tonight?” He asked.

Grim frowned deeply. “You’re seriously staying? The only rooms that’s clean are ours. The other rooms are still dusty and uncleaned. If you want to sleep, then clean it yourself.” He told as he made his way towards the stairs.

“Bleh! I’m not cleaning.” Ace stuck his tongue out childishly before turning to Hikari who in return stared at him with a skeptical look. He walked closer and circled his arm over Hikari’s shoulder. She pushed him away when the collar almost hit her eye. “Hikari~ Let me stay in your room, kay? I’m slim so I won’t take much space.”

“Hah! As if—“ Hikari snorted and pointed her finger at the couch. “Sorry, Ace, but you deserve to sleep on the couch.” 

Ace clicked his tongue. “Tsk! Stingy~ That’s fine, I guess. I’ll go sleep all by myself on this couch.” He threw himself onto the couch and turned his back onto the brunette with an arm under his head. “G’night!”

The keyblade wielder shook her head before heading upstairs to get an extra blanket for Ace. She came back not five minutes later with an extra blanket in hand. She placed the blanket over Ace carefully. In the end, despite being in the same year, she was still the eldest among Ace and Deuce. Of course, she has to look out for them. 

The orange-haired boy didn’t respond to her gesture.

Hikari crouched down. “Don’t let the bed bugs bite~”

Suddenly, Ace turned around, glaring daggers at her. “OIIII! And here I thought you were actually being nice!” He was awake all along and the brunette laughed at his expression. “It’s an impression, but I can’t help and take it seriously! This dorm is so old!” He complained, still glaring at her even when she was walking towards the stairs.

Hikari clapped her hands twice, switching off a few of the main lights of the common area.

“Good night, Ace.” 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are currently digging into Riddle's story!
> 
> There is a separate story in the form of a manga I drew and posted at tumblr. If you are interested, please feel free to read Riddle's Personal Story there! 
> 
> here's the link:  
> [Riddle's Personal Story Part 1](https://wingbladeweaver1357.tumblr.com/post/615757192140849152/here-is-riddles-story-i-really-had-fun-making)

Chapter 6  
The fateful encounter

_Ramshackle dorm, 7am_

Hikari woke up to the sound of her alarm and Grim’s complaints for her to turn it off. She groaned and turned the alarm on her phone off, checking the notifications before burying her face into her pillow again. The two of them snoozed back to dreamland. 

Ten minutes later, the second alarm rang.

“FnaaーHow many alarms did you set!?” Grim shouted irritably, covering his ears with his paws. “Turn them off!”

The brunette turned off the alarm and finally pushed herself into a sitting position. “Five… maybe? Just in case we overslept.” she answered drowsily. She stretched her arms above her head as a loud yawn escaped her lips. “C’mon, we better get ready if we don’t want to be late.” She picked Grim up and carried him to the bathroom.

The bathroom was located on the first floor of the dorm while each floor has toilets. When they arrived at the common area, Hikari could still hear light snoring coming from the couch. Ace was still sound asleep.

“Hey, Ace! Wake up!” Hikari shouted.

There was a groan. “Ugh… Ten more minutes...” Ace grumbled before going back to sleep. 

The brunette decided to just follow his request and left him for another ten minutes as she got ready. Even after she and Grim finished freshening up, they still found the wild oranged-haired teen sound asleep. She rolled her eyes and placed Grim down on the floor.

“How about you try waking him up while I’ll go and get ready.” Hikari ordered. She went back up to her room to change, leaving the demon-cat with a mission. 

Grim stared at Hikari’s back with a stink eye. “The nerve of that human for ordering me around.” he complained under his breath, but decided to follow her order. He jumped onto the couch, right beside Ace’s head, and patted his paw a few times on his face. “Wake up! You better not make us late for class!” he shouted.

Ace turned around, pushing Grim off of the couch and he yelped in surprise. “Ughhhh… Alright, alright, I get itーit’s time to wake up.” he yawned loudly and sat up with a drowsy look across his face. His eyes were still shut tight with his nose scrunched up. He placed his hand on his neck, to rub the soreness away, only to collide with the cold metal. “Argh! I forgot this thing is still around!” he suddenly shouted.

“Geez... “ Grim deadpanned. “Hikari said you can use the bathroom over there to take a shower or something.” he pointed his paw down the corridor.

“Right, right, thanks.” Ace responded before taking his duffle bag with him to the bathroom. 

Hikari came back down five minutes later, already dressed in Night Raven College’s uniform. She tugged on her tie, loosening the knot a little. Crowley did promise her that he would give her the school’s official girls’ uniformーthat is _if_ he finds it. Though, she doesn’t mind wearing the boys’ uniform for the rest of her mission. 

“Good mornin’!” Hikari greeted the orange haired boy as she spotted him.

Ace scowled. “What’s so good about it?” He dumped the duffle bag to the common area before dragging his feet towards the kitchen. He took a seat on the chair, propping his chin up on the table. “I woke up thinking this thing would go away after a good night sleep, but _no_.” he drawled out, dragging the no. 

Hikari shared some of her bread. “That just means you have to apologize... _sincerely_ .” she emphasized and Ace automatically took the bread with a grumpy look. “It’s not hard to apologize. Just five simple letters. _Sorry_ . C’mon, say it with me. _Sorry, Prefect Riddle_.” she teased.

Grim giggled behind his paw. “Be sure to give him triple the tarts you’ve eaten~!” he said before he took a big bite from his bread.

Ace gave a pointed glare. “Oh ha ha, very funny.” the teen laughed dryly and took a bite of his share of bread with an angry pout. 

_Knock knock_

Hikari yelped when dust rained down on them. “Note to self… Clean the kitchen next.” she coughed as she patted the dust off of her jacket and hair.

“You better! This place is so rundown, the dust comes falling at the smallest movement!” Ace blinked a few times and rubbed his right eye, trying to get the dust out. The knocking continued and more dust seemed to rain down from the ceiling. “We hear ‘ya! We hear ya’! Stop hitting the door!” he shouted as he stood up from the chair.

Hikari followed Ace to the foyer. The door almost fell off its hinges when the person knocked on the door again. Deuce was seen standing on the porch, somewhat surprised by the door breaking down. He quickly recovered and stepped inside, giving an underwhelmed look towards his fellow Heartslabyul student. 

“So you did come here.” Deuce crossed his arms and his brows furrowed. “I heard about what happened from the other students. You got collared because you ate the Prefect’s tart. You really are an idiot.” he said, sighing in disappointment.

Ace scowled, “Shut up! I don’t want to hear that from you!” he shouted with his arms crossed and eyes averted elsewhere. He sneaked a glance back to Deuce before huffing. “...was he still mad?” he asked, a little more quietly compared to the previous tone.

“Not really… He looked irritated at some guys who were late for the morning roll call…” Deuce replied, trailing off as his eyes drift towards the heart-shaped collar around Ace’s neck. “Three people had the same fate as you.” 

“He hasn’t calmed down at all! He’s definitely pissed!”

Hikari shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe you can turn that frown upside down by _apologizing_ to him.” she emphasized again, giving a pointed look. She has been reminding him since last night. Ace was a stubborn teenage boy who’s ego was too big to apologize. Last time, it took the Headmaster and detention to force them to make up and shake hands. “And you know, buy him some tarts.”

“Would you stop reminding me? I already know that!” Ace snapped at the brunette and she just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Geez!” he huffed.

“Nevertheless, you’re going to have trouble following class with your magic sealed like that.” Deuce said, stating another fact. 

Grim sat down beside Hikari’s feet. “We still got time before class, right? Let’s go to the Heart’s dorm and watch Ace’s apology!” he said with a cheeky smile.

Ace took a step forward, raising his fist threateningly. “You littleー!! This isn’t a show!” he shouted and Grim laughed, hiding behind Hikari’s legs as he continued to taunt. The orange-haired teen scowled deeply. “I’ll remember this when I get my magic back! Just you wait!” he argued, pointing his finger like a little kid.

“Didn’t the Headmaster tell us not to make another scene?” Deuce reminded. 

“Yeah, yeah!” Ace sighed deeply. “You’re coming too.” he grabbed onto Hikari’s wrist and began to drag her with him. 

“Fine, fine, just let me get my bag first.” 

Deuce decided to tag along to make sure Ace didn’t get in more trouble than he already is. They reached the Hall of Mirrors and it was Hikari’s second time to be inside the Hall of Mirrors.

There were seven mirrors in totalーeach with their own unique design according to the legends. Students were coming out of the mirrors from their respective dorms, passing glances to the quartet. The wielder observed the mirrors once again, trying to memorize the designs and locations. The last time she was here, she was being dragged by Kalim straight to Scarabia’s Mirror and she couldn’t get a good look at the others.

They stood in front of the Heartslabyul dorm’s Mirror and Hikari noted how it was definitely modeled after Wonderland with all the ornaments decorating the frame. 

Ace was the first to step through the mirrorーthe surface rippled like a stone dropped into calm waters. The motion was followed by a bright light appearing after he walked through the magic glass. Deuce was next with Hikari and Grim walking right behind him. 

They stepped out of the small building and were immediately met with a castle-like dorm. Both Hikari and Grim stare in awe when they see the Heartslabyul’s dorm. The path to the main building was decorated with blooming red roses and a fountain just before the entrance. 

“This place is so pretty!” Grim’s eyes sparkled at the beautiful garden. “Unlike our rundown dorm…” he grumbled.

“Well… The Headmaster did promise to collect funds and renovate it.” Hikari recalled, remembering one of the conversations she had with the Headmaster. Compared to Scarabia’s grand and luxurious dorm, Heartslabyul was more modest. And of course, comparing both Scarabia and Heartslabyul to Ramshackle was out of the question. Ramshackle still needed workー _a lot_ of work. “Let’s keep our hopes up and wait.” she said.

Grim huffed. “That guy better.”

“Crap! I better hurry and paint these roses!” A voice was heard. The young man sounded like he was in a hurry. 

Deuce blinked, recognizing the young man. “Ah, he was there when I left this morning too…”

Ace gave a surprised look. “What the hell is he doing? Is he painting the roses?”

The wielder squinted her eyes. This reminded her so much of the card soldiers from Wonderland. She did see them painting the white roses red by orders of the Queen of Hearts. She really didn’t get why they kept on painting the roses red when the paint would wash away once they were watered. The Queen could just order everyone to plant red roses instead of the white ones and it would save everyone a whole lot of time. 

“Why though?” Grim questioned.

Hikari shrugged. “I suppose it’s to commemorate the Queen of Hearts’ crazy rules?” she suggested offhandedly. While the Queen of Hearts is considered to be a tyrant and a very short-tempered and pompous individualーshe was never part of the Villains’ Alliance. 

“Bingo~” the person who was painting the roses said in a sing-song tone. He had sneaked up on the group of first-years while they were busy talking. The quartet gave a startled yelp, making the young man laugh. His orange hair was tied back into a ponytail and his eyes were green. Underneath his right eye was the Heartslabyul’s students signature trademark, a small red diamond patch to resemble the diamond soldiers. “Your fresh reactions are so cute!” 

The quartet took a few steps back.

“It’s unusual to meet someone outside of Heartslabyul to have a grasp of our rules~” The young man leaned closer, staring at Hikari with a smile across his lips. He hummed before glancing over to look at Grim and then to Ace and Deuce. “Now that I took a good look at you guys, aren’t you the first years who broke the one billion madol chandelier?”

Ace cringed. “Ugh… We’re gonna hear that until the day we graduate, huh?

The diamond teen turned to look at Ace. “And you’re the one who got an extra punishment from stealing the Prefect’s tarts yesterday, right?” he took a few steps closer, pointing his finger at him. Ace gave him a surprised look. “I feel so lucky to meet with the notorious first-years so early in the morning.”

“Looks like we’re already known as the troublemakers…” Hikari sighed.

Deuce sighed in agreement. “I suppose so…”

“Hey, hey, let’s take a selfie!” The diamond teen wrapped his arm around Ace’s shoulder and raised his phone. Before even given time to prepare for the picture, the diamond teen already snapped a shot. He released Ace from his hold and whistled at the result. “Can I put this on Magicam? Tell me your names so I can put it in the tags! Oh yeah! The name’s Cater. Cater Diamond, but Cay-kun is alright.” he chirped happily.

“Deuce…”

“Ace.”

“I’m the Great Lord Grim! And this is my henchman, Hikari!” 

“Ha ha, very funny.” Hikari said dryly.

Cater blinked a few times, his finger stopping from typing the tags. “Hikari? So, you’re _thee_ Hikari.” his eyes seemed to brighten when he recognized who she is. “I heard about you from our beloved Prefect~”

Hikari tilted her head confusedly. “Yeah?” 

“Man, what did you do, Hikari? You’re not even in Heartslabyul and the Prefect’s already talking about you.” Ace teased as he crossed his hands behind his neck. “You must've done some pretty nasty thing!”

Hikari rolled her eyes, giving him the most obvious look. “I was roped into yesterday’s whole fiasco and besides, you’re the one who ate his tart and got collaredー”

“Now, now, Hikari- _chan_ , it’s not good to start a fight~” Cater laughed, motioning his hand for the shorter of the two to calm down. He turned to look at the boys with a smile on his face. “How about you guys help me with painting the roses? The party’s in two days and I don’t want to lose my head either!”

Ace gave a skeptical look. “Why should we help you?”

“You’re so cold, Ace- _chan!_ Can’t you help your senpai out?” Cater pouted, puckering his lower lip out. “I also have to change the flamingos color for the croquet match. I’m super busy!” 

The orange-haired teen spluttered. “ _CーChan_?” he sounded perplexed by Cater's choice of name calling.

Grim blinked. “Change the flamingos’ color too? Man, you sure do have weird chores…” he was glad Hikari didn’t make him do strange chores. The only thing he disliked about Ramshackle was that it was very old and dirtyーmaking them have to clean it every time. 

“So in other words.... The tart Ace ate was for the Prefect’s birthday party, right? That’s why he was so mad.” Deuce sighed as he crossed his arms. 

“Nope~”

Ace stared at his upperclassman with a look of disbelief. “Hah?! It’s not? Then whose birthday is it?!” 

Hikari's mouth shaped into an O when she realized what event it was. “Now that you mention it… Could this party be _the Unbirthday Party_?” She has nothing against parties, but she dislikes the Unbirthday Party thrown by the Mad Hatter and the March Hare back in Wonderland. They were both mad and wouldn’t even give her some tea. Not to mention she wasn’t a fan of the Unbirthday song either. “I mean… I’ve read about it in books and all…” she quickly added to avoid any questions.

Cater snapped his fingers, pointing finger guns at her. “Correct~! The day after tomorrow is our dorm’s traditional Unbirthday Party. The Prefect chooses a random day that isn’t anyone’s birthday and hosts a tea party for everyone to enjoy.” 

“That’s ridiculous!”

Cater ushered Deuce and Ace to one of the rose bushes. “Save the questions for later! Right now, we have to paint the roses red!” he grabbed a bucket of red paint and a brush, giving them to Ace without listening to the boy’s complaints. “Since Ace-chan is the only one who can’t use magic, you gotta paint it manually! How about you two handle the ones on this side while Hikari-chan, Grim-chan and I handle this side?” he winked.

“You mean… change the color with magic?” Deuce asked as he grabbed his magic pen.

Grim huffed from his spot in Hikari’s arms. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”

Cater waved all of their worries away. “Just relax and go with the flow~ We better hurry if we don’t want to lose our heads to our dorm leader.”

“Looks like we have no choice…” Hikari said under her breath and Grim heard her, responding with a huff. The cat jumped down from her arms and got up on his hind legs. The brunette also prepared herself to help her upperclassman paint the roses. She wasn’t against helping others in need, but the way Cater made itーit seems like he was tricking them to help him. 

“So, I also heard that you became a Prefect? Congrats! That’s totally like an achievement for a first year!” Cater happily started a conversation with the only girl. “I think you’re the first ever female freshmen to get promoted! And on her first day to boot!”

The brunette shrugged. “Well… Grim and I are the only ones in Ramshackle. Speaking of Prefects… I don’t think anyone noticed I’m a girl… Ace called me Mr. Prefect instead.” she shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. She had thought Ace knew from the start, but it turns out, he didn’t. “The only ones who seemed to realize are Leona-senpai and Ruggie-senpai. Is it really that unbelievable for a girl to be at NRC? Or is it because my face lacks any femininity?” she dramatically sighed, placing a hand on her cheek.

She wasn’t bothered. She was just curious.

Cater waved his magic pen. “Awww don’t be like that, Hikari-chan! I think you’re super adorable!” he complimented in a sing-song voice. “It's just that it’s been a few decades since we have a female student, so I guess it does seem rather unbelievable.” 

“Man, Ace is so slow…” Grim commented. “Now that you mentioned it… I think Deuce also thinks you’re a guy!”

“...Why am I not surprised?”

“But won’t it be fun? Let’s see how long it will take for Ace-chan and Deuce-chan to figure out your identity.” Cater said with a mischievous look, grinning from ear to ear as he glanced over to the duo.

“Is that a bet? I accept.” Hikari was equally as interested as Cater. “I guess I can keep up the act until the end of the semester.”

“That long? You have so little faith in them…” Cater laughed. “A month! Give or take.”

“I’d say they’ll never figure it out until someone told them.” Grim joined.

Hikari sniggered. “True!”

“You two are mean…” Cater chuckled. “Well, enough chit-chat. Let’s start painting the roses!”

Hikari raised her magic pen, though she doesn’t need the magic crystal to cast magic, she used it anyway to avoid questions. As she waved her magic pen to pretend to cast magic from it, she casted her own magic on the flowers. Changing colors was already taught to her by Merlin. The wizard made her memorize a bunch of spells when she was under his tutelage.

“Oh~! Aren’t you a natural?” Cater praised her as he casted his magic as well. “Keep it up! You’re doing great!”

Grim coughed into his paw. “That’s nothing! Watch this!” he scrunched up his nose, focusing his mind on changing the roses’ colors. “Change the color… How about this!” he released his magic and not a second later, the bush was engulfed in blue flames. “Gyaaa! The roses are on fire!”

The keyblade wielder casted water magic, putting the fire out casuallyーalmost as if she dealt with Grim’s fires on a daily basis. “It’s alright. Try again.” she encouraged.

“Red… Red…!” Deuce closed his eyes, trying to focus his mind on the color. He waved his pen and aimed. “Gah! It turned blue instead!” his eyes widened when the color changed, but not into the color he wanted.

Ace snorted with laughter. “You really suck at this, huh?”

“I would like to see you try this yourself!” Deuce turned to look at the orange-haired teen, snapping at him.

Ace stuck his tongue out childishly, tapping the handle of the brush on the collar. “Can’t use magic, remember, Crybaby Deuce?” he mocked. 

“Why youー!!”

“No fighting!” Hikari reminded them from a distance.

“Well… I guess it’ll be much faster if you two paint the roses manually too.” Cater sighed heavily before giving paint brushes to Grim and Deuce as well. 

Ace dumped the paintbrush into the bucket. “Aren’t the roses fine being white? They’re already pretty! Why do we have to paint it red?” he huffed out.

“Like what Hikari-chan said earlier, it’s tradition. Red roses are for the Unbirthday Party. And we use flamingos in seven different colors for croquet and hedgehogs as the balls.” Cater explained with a hum. Hikari wasn’t really sure about red roses in the Unbirthday Party hosted by the Mad hatter and the March Hare, but she was sure the Queen would lose it if she spotted any white roses instead of red in her garden. “But you know, we use white roses for the spring garden concert! That’s an important fact to remember too~”

“Those are all strange rules.” Grim gave a deadpan look at the upperclassman.

“They say these rules are decided by the Great Seven’s Queen of Hearts herself.” Cater said and the three underclassmen looked at him. “Riddle is particularly passionate about following the rules even compared to the other strict Prefects. Though, I won’t deny he goes too far sometimes....” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly.

Realization hit Ace. “That’s right! I don’t have time for this. I want to speak to the Prefect. Is he still inside?” he asked.

Cater hummed as he placed the brush down. “Hmm? I think there’s still time before he leaves.” The roses’ color were all changed to redーsave for a few. “By the way, Ace the Tart Thief, did you bring a tart to replace the one you ate?” 

Ace blinked. “No… I came here first thing.” 

Hikari gave him an _‘I told you so’_ look.

Ace glared back, telling her to shut up. “I was thinking of apologizing first and then buying a tart later,” he explained. 

Cater gave a look of disappointment. “Oh no… is that so?” he crossed his arms, sighing with a frown across his face. “Since you’re going against the law of the Queen of Hearts, Rule number 53: _One must always return what they stole._ Because of that… I can’t let you in the dorm.”

Ace was taken aback by Cater’s reply. “Haaa?! What the hell is that? Another bullshit rule!”

The brunette placed a hand on her chin, agreeing with Cater on this one. “Actually, I think that rule seems validー”

“I thought you were supposed to be on my side?!”

Cater took out his magic pack from his breast pocket. “I’ll lose my head too if I knowingly let you in. Sorry, but you have to leave before Riddle notices.” he lowered his head, giving a serious look with a smirk on his lips.

The orange-haired teen took a step back. “Woah, his face suddenly got serious! Guys! Help me out here!”

Deuce gave him a look. “Why should I? It’s your problem here.”

“Uh, hello? Can’t use magic here! Help a guy out will ya?!” 

Deuce sighed before taking his own magic pen to prepare for a fight.

Hikari took it as her cue to step between the two ginger heads. “Though I agree Ace was in the wrong for stealing the Prefect’s tart, you’re seriously not going to kick us out with force, right?” she said and Cater relaxed his stance as if he was reconsidering his actions. She was standing in front of Ace, acting as a shield for her classmate. She was the same age as Cater, she wasn’t intimidated by his status as an upperclassman. “We understand. We’ll come back later with a tart.” she negotiated, smiling.

Cater tapped his chin with the pen. “If it’s coming from Hikari-chan, then alright!” he winked flirtatiously. “You have some nice friends, Ace-chan! Come back later with a tart, okay?”

“We will! See you later then, Cater-senpai!” the keyblade wielder laughed, waving her hand goodbye.

“JーJust like that?” Deuce stared at the shorter of the three with disbelief. He understood violence was not always the answer, but he was prepared to fight his upperclassman since he was threatening to use force. 

“Just like that.” Hikari ushered both Ace and Deuce out of the Rose Maze with Grim following beside her. As soon as they were out of earshot and eyesight, they began to discuss with each otherー though mostly it was Ace complaining his heart out. They had exited Heartslabyul’s dorm and were walking down the Main Street to reach the main campus. 

“Seriously what’s his problem?!” Ace scowled, obviously ticked off by Cater’s duality. One minute the guy was all buddy-buddy and nice, the next minute he was ready to throw some hands. “He could’ve at least told us from the beginning! That guy just wanted us to paint the damn roses!” 

Grim couldn’t agree more. “He’s a shrewd one, that’s for sure.”

“Then we’ll just have to return afterー?!” before Deuce can even finish his sentence. There was a bell ringing, signaling the students that classes will begin in ten minutes or less. “That was the warning bell! If we don’t hurry up, we’ll be late for class!”

Grim’s eyes widened and urged the three humans to hurry. “Gahh! The first day of my shining school life would be tarnished if I’m late!” 

Hikari scooped the cat up and began to run. “Then we better hurry!” 

For the first period, they have Potion class with their own homeroom teacherーProfessor Divus Crewel. The first thing they received when they reached the laboratory was a pointed look by the professor himself. Of course, he’d never forget about the troublesome trio and their cat. Not to mention they were almost late for the first period.

“Right on time,” Crewel said as he glanced over to look at his wrist watch. The trio gave apologetic looks before heading over to the empty seats. The usual fluffy black and white coat was put aside and replaced with the traditional white lab coat. “Good morning, puppies. As you all already know me as your homeroom teacher. You may refer to me as Master Crewel or Professor Crewel, if you please.” he paced around in the front, glancing at his students one by one.

“Class will begin… First the basics. Open your textbooks to chapter 1, page 12.” As soon as the Professor instructed, the sound of pages turning was heard around the classroom. Hikari shared her books with Grim and she could hear the gasp of horror from the cat when she opened the exact page Crewel told them to. List and _list_ of plants were printed on the book along with a picture beside the description. 

“Funaaaa?!” Grim exclaimed and Crewel turned to their direction.

The Professor raised his crop, tapping it on his palm. “I will beat the names and appearances of 100 types of medicine and poison into your little brains.” he said with a smirk and Hikari couldn’t help but sweatdrop as Grim gulped and inched closer to her. “I don’t want to see any red marks on your exam, so prepare yourselves, puppies. I’ll be as strict as I can be.” 

“Ugh… I’m pretty bad with memorization…” Ace muttered from the table beside theirs. 

“We’ll cover fungi later. Now memorize these so you don’t go around getting poisoned by random things you eat off the ground. After all, dogs will eat anything lying around.”

“And apparently racoons too.” Ace leaned over to her table, sniggering.

Grim glared at him. “Funaa! If it’s grass, we just need to figure out if it’s tasty or not!”

“Grim, no. This is why we need to memorize it.” Hikari sighed before looking at the list of plants. She knew most in the list since Merlin told her to memorize the plants the moment he decided to teach her potions. It took her a long time to memorize them and Aerith even helped her with it since she grew some in her garden. 

The first period went by smoothly. 

The second period was History with Mr. Mozus Trein.

“My name is Mozus Trein and I’m in charge of your history lessons. This is my familiar, Lucius.” The elderly man introduced himself with a strict and intimidating aura. The cat in his arms meowed as he stroked its fur. “You will all learn about the history of magic that has brought prosperity to the world.” 

“Not only reports, but your behavior in class will affect your grades. I will not forgive students who slack off and sleep in my class.” Trein walked around the room, holding Lucius in his arms as he glared at students whose focus began to drift off. “Open your textbook to page 15. We will start with the discovery of magic crystals in the Dwarfs’ Mine.” 

_Meow_

Hikari tried to focus on Trein’s class, she really did, but with Lucius’ constant meowing, she was starting to lose focus and began to feel rather irritated. From the seat behind her, she could already hear Ace yawning and Deuce who was still trying his best to stay focused and interested. Grim on the other hand was complaining and glaring the Trein’s familiar.

History was interesting, but she was getting lulled to sleep by Trein’s lecture in his monotonous voice. 

Third period, P.E. was interesting, definitely a wakeup call from History lesson. 

“My name is Coach Ashton Vargas! I’m the one in charge of P.E. for you bean sprouts! Vargas blew into his whistle, making all his students turn to look at him. 

Hikari and Grim were actually one of the first to finish changing and met the hot-blooded narcissist coach. Unlike her classmates, the teachers were aware of her gender. So far, Crewel and Trein don't seem to care, but in PE she would surely lose the bet if she didn’t tell the coach about their prank. She and Grim managed to convince Vargas in on their prank to fool everyone until they figured it out themselves. 

“Becoming a great wizard starts with your muscles! Look at all these muscles I’ve built by eating raw eggs everyday!” Vargas striked a pose, flexing his muscles to show it all off to his scrawny students. “You baby wizards have no stamina! I want 20 laps around the field and then drop down and give me 100 pushups!” he blew his whistle again, pointing his finger, giving the go.

Ace jogged beside Hikari, “I like PE… but I can’t deal with this type of teacher.” he complained.

Deuce sped up. “I got confidence in my stamina!” He was quick on his feet, but steady with his breathing as well.

“He seems hyped.” Ace sighed, deadpanning.

Grim huffed. “What’s so fun about running around in circles? I’m not a hamster!”

Hikari could actually compare Vargas to Phil when it comes to training to be a hero. She could still remember her training days with the satyr. 50 laps, 100 pushups and situps. Good times… _Good times_.

Before they even knew it, it was already lunch time.

“Our next class is…” Deuce trailed off as he looked over his schedule.

“For a magic school, it’s not that different from a regular school.” Ace commented and Hikari couldn’t help but agree. So far, it seemed like a regular schoolーexcept for potion class. Destiny Islands’ schools don’t have that type of lessons. “Not having magic hasn’t been a problem at all.”

“We have Defensive Magic next though…” Hikari said as she looked at the schedule. 

Ace groaned. “Ughhh! Just when I thought things would get better…” he facepalmed, running his hand down his face. “Hey, Grim, whatー?” his question was put on hold as he noticed the cat wasn’t with them.

Hikari looked around, trying to find the cat. “Where is he?” 

“Look over there! That furball is running across the courtyard!” Deuce exclaimed and both Ace and Hikari leaned over the window. 

“Grim! Come back here!” Hikari shouted, raising her fist threateningly at him. Her voice was loud enough to catch the other students’ attention. They were by the second floor’s exterior hallway with a good view of the courtyard from above. “You’re seriously skipping on the first day?!”

“Hah! As a genius, I don’t need classes to teach me how to use magic!” Grim shouted back smugly. 

The keyblade wielder pinched the bridge of her nose. Her mission to find out more about Twisted Wonderland and the Great Seven turned out to be a babysitting job. From day one, she already has to babysit Grim, and maybe Ace and Deuce as well. It was almost like taking care of two bratty toddlers and Deuce. At this rate her mission would take longer than she expected.

Deuce sighed. “Making a break for it already… He never learns, huh?”

“It’s your first day as a Prefect and you already lost your tract of him!” Ace sneered, teasing the brunette as he placed his elbow on her shoulder. Said Prefect gave a pointed look. “So, do you want help catching Grim or not?”

“What’s the catch? Your face says it all.” Hikari asked, giving a suspicious look. 

Ace grinned. “Buy me a chocolate croissant~”

“Then I’ll help as well for an iced café latte.” Deuce decided to follow in the troublemaker Ace’s footsteps.

Hikari blinked. “...Fine. Deal.” she was actually expecting them to ask her to buy them lunch, but an ice cafe latte and chocolate croissant seems to be a fair price for catching Grim. “I’ll be waiting at the cafeteria then!”

“Nice!” Ace cheered. “Alright, Deuce, shall we clean up after our little Prefect?”

“Let’s go!”

 _‘Those two… are surprisingly easy to convince.’_ Hikari crossed her arms as she watched her two classmates run after Grim. She had planned to visit the library or go back to the Assembly Hall to see the Magic Mirror when she was alone, but the break time was too short, so she settled for another time to visit the two places. She hasn’t even finished chapter one yet, but she wanted to send a copy of the history book to Master Yen Sid. 

Hikari sighed.

 _‘Hmm?’_ The keyblade wielder stopped abruptly when she saw a glimpse of a tall and dark figure with horns walking across the crossing hallway. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, staring intently as the figure walked past, a few meters away from her. _‘?!!!!!!’_

She rubbed her eyes and patted her own cheeks a few times, thinking that it was her mind playing tricks on her. 

_‘That… can’t be...right?’_

There’s only one person she knows who’s very tall and dark and has horns on top of her head. 

Maleficent, the Mistress of Evil.

Hikari turned around on her heels, deciding to just ignore the illusions. ‘ _No way. There’s no way that’s Maleficent.’_ she brushed the thoughts away with a smile. 

After the whole looking for a castle and the searching for the Black Box, they finally defeated her and returned her to her original world, the Enchanted Dominion. The wielder didn’t actually know if Maleficent learned her lesson or not, but things have been calm. She sometimes visited the Moors to check up on the fairy, but she was too stubborn to grant an audience to the wielder. 

The brunette stopped on her tracks. _‘...or is it?’_ she debated with herself whether or not to follow the mysterious figure. She quickened her pace, heading towards the direction where the figure disappeared off to. The keyblade wielder has perfect eyesight, she doesn’t need glasses yet. There was a fifty-fifty chance that was really Maleficent, because there’s no one else with horns like that other than the Mistress herself. _‘Just to be sureー!’_

“ーwhoa!” Hikari was quick on her feet to stop herself from bumping into someone who appeared so suddenly from the sharp corner. She took a few steps back to address the person she almost bumped into and apologize formally to them. “Sorry! I was in a hurry and wasn’t paying attention. Are you hurtー?!”

“No....” the person replied. His voice was deep and velvet. “You have not even lay a finger, therefore an apology is unnecessary.”

There stood the person she wanted to spy on.

 _‘A DUDE?!’_ Hikari laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with an awkward smile across her lips. _Maleficent_ turned out to be another personーa student of Night Raven College. But the man does striked a close resemblance to the Mistress of Evil. The horns especially. _‘Not… Maleficent then.’_ she sighed in relief. 

The man smirked. “Something wrong, Child of Man? You look rather pale. Perhaps it is you who I should inquire about any injuries.” he remarked with elegance.

“I was just heading to the cafeteria! Gotta fill that empty stomach after P.E!” Hikari played it off smoothly, patting her rumbling tummy. On one hand, she was glad that it wasn’t Maleficent, but on the other hand this person could be Maleficent’s kid or great grand kid or something. “Well, sorry again for almost bumping into you!” she waved her hand goodbye.

The Maleficent-look-alike pointed to the opposite direction, to the direction where she first came from. “The cafeteria is that way.”

Hikari stopped on her track, “OH! Really? Hahaha!” she turned around with an embarrassed look as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Well, what do you expect… it’s my first day here! Haha!” she tried to laugh it off as she crab-walked to the direction the person was pointing at.

Maleficent-look-alike gave an amused smirk. 

“Well then, see ya!”

“Just a moment.” The Maleficent-look-alike stopped her.

Hikari stopped, turning sideways to look at him. 

The dark fae stared at the wielder with sharp glowing green eyes. 

“Child of Man, have we met before?”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Crimson Tyrant

* * *

_“No… I don’t think so.”_

_“I see…”_

* * *

The cafeteria was as busy as ever. 

Hikari came into the cafeteria with a head full of thoughts. The encounter with the Maleficent-look-alike left quite an impression. Their meeting was short and he left right after receiving a reply. The young man looked rather unpleased with her answer, but left nonetheless. Other than having an uncanny resemblance to Maleficent, the young man did look _quite_ familiar. 

“Hey~! Hikari! Lookie here!”

The brunette turned her head to the source. “That was fast!” she decided to put the thoughts aside for now. She could always investigate later on. 

“We caught him~!” Ace raised Grim up by the scruff of his neck. While the duo, Ace and Deuce, looked extremely happy and pleased, Grim was the exact opposite. The cat was downright sour and salty, face scrunched up in an unpleasant scowl and paws crossed. 

“Nice work! I got your payment right here!” Hikari grinned at her two classmates, showing them the tray of food.

“Alright!” Ace and Deuce high-fived.

“Damn it! Why do I have to attend stupid classes?!” Grim whined, trashing in Ace’s grasp.

Hikari gave him a pointed look. “Who was the one that didn't want their shining school life to be tarnished?” she quoted and Grim huffed, looking away from her. At some point, she also wanted to just skip or sleep. The lessonsーespecially historyーwas boring to the point where she just wanted to snooze off to dreamland. It was tempting, but she couldn’t get into any more trouble if she wanted the mission to go smoothly from now on. “Skipping class would ruin that perfect attendance, ya’know?”

Grim continued to grumble under his breath.

“Sorry, Hikari, but can you keep our seats a little bit longer?” Deuce asked, glancing to look at the line of the buffet. 

Hikari waved his worries away. “No problem! Better get in line before everything solds out.” she smiled, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. Deuce smiled in return and made his way to get in line. She sat back down and waited for the boys to buy their meals, but Ace didn’t move from his spot. She raised her eyebrow at him. “What?”

Ace placed a hand on his hip, eyebrows furrowed. “Well?”

The brunette gave him a confused look. “Well, what?”

The ginger haired teen huffed. “Aren’t you going to give me some money to pay for this furball’s meal? I mean, he is _your_ responsibility.” he pouted and said Furball gave a shout of complaint from under his arm at the rude nickname. “I’m just a poor college student trying to survive with what little pocket money I have…” he gave a pitiful look, trying to grab sympathy. 

Hikari gave him a deadpan look. “That’s not gonna work on me,” she tutted, but grabbed her wallet nonetheless. She wasn’t going to let a _broke_ college student pay for someone else’s meal. She used the same trick so many times when she was younger, though most of the time, it didn’t work. “But since I’m so _generous_ and all that, hereーfor Grim’s meal that is.'' She handed him a few madols to cover for the familiar’s lunch. 

Ace happily took the money. “Awesome! More free dessert~” he said in a sing-song voice.

“Funyaaa! That’s mine!” 

The brunette sighed, rolling her eyes at them both. They reminded her too much of her school years back in Destiny Islands. Mostly the constant bickering between her and Tidus about everything. Though, her school days were filled with less action and adventure, let alone magic and potions. 

“Hikari~!” a familiar bubbly voice was heard, followed by a certain white-haired boy throwing himself on her. 

Hikari glanced over her shoulder, the view of Kalim with a grin across his face greeting her. He was followed by his vice, taking his time to reach her table. “Kalim-senpai… and Jamil-senpai. Good afternoon!” she greeted them.

Kalim laughed, releasing the brunette from his embrace. “Just Kalim is fine! Anyway, how’s it going? I heard you guys almost got expelled! I’m glad you didn’t though.” he rambled with a carefree look across his face. He was concerned for the group of troublesome first years when news reached Scarabia about them breaking the enchanted chandelier. “It’ll be a shame to say goodbye after we just met. There’s going to be a lot of things you’re going to miss if you got expelled on your first dayー”

“Kalim.” Jamil chided his friend for his endless chatter. He turned to look at the brunette who stood up to talk to them both. She didn’t seem bothered by Kalim’s lack of personal space or his continuous chatter. “Is it alright if we sit here?” he asked politely.

Hikari rubbed the back of her neck, giving an apologetic look. “Sorry… I’m saving these seats for Ace and Deuce… and Grim too.”

Jamil nodded, completely unbothered by the reasoning. “It’s alright."

“Ehhh bummer… ” The white-haired dorm leader pouted before going back to his cheery old self. He hummed, placing a hand on his chin. “I was hoping we can sit and talk moreーI know! How about you join us for dinner?!” he exclaimed, extending yet another invitation to the person he barely knew.

Jamil’s eye twitched at Kalim’s lack of awareness. “Oi, Kalim, you can’t justー”

“I appreciate the invitation, but maybe next time?” Hikari was quick to decline Kalim’s gracious offer. She knew there was no ill-intention behind his kindness. On one hand she was grateful for his open arms, but on the other, it was just a bit strange. Judging from Jamil’s expression, he wasn’t too keen on cooking for an extra visitor again. “I really need to study for Professor Crewel’s class.” she lied.

Kalim pouted, puffing his cheeks out childishly. “Too bad…”

The black-haired teen sighed softly. Class hasn’t even ended and he already looked tired. “We better find some seats before lunch is overー” he turned his head over towards the crowd gathering near the buffet. There was some sort of commotion going on, another fight, he guessed.

Hikari turned her head as well. “A fight?”

“I suggest you stay out of it if you want to play it safe.” Jamil advised. The vice prefect knew of her status as the only current female student in NRC. He honestly thought she would back out and transfer into another school due to the unreasonable ratio of male and female students. Then again, he understood why she chose to stay. Being chosen by the Mirror of Darkness to enroll in NRC was an honorーespecially if you’re the first female student to be chosen from the past decades. “Sticking your nose into something that doesn’t concern you will get you some unwanted attention. Especially if you’re the only female student around here.” he continued.

“Erーyeah…” The brunette visibly stiffened when she heard a familiar voice from the crowd. Specifically, one that belongs to Grim. “But not if that matter concerns me. Now will you please excuse me, I have two idiots to find.” she quickly excused herself to find her friends. 

“Talk to you two later then!”

“Oh, yeah, talk to you later, Hikari!”

Jamil could only sigh as he dragged Kalim away to find an empty table. 

The brunette had to push her way through the crowd, who were cheering and watching the fight as free entertainment. As soon as she reached the front and got a front view seat, she deadpanned. It was indeed her group of friends who were fighting two seniors. She was quick to cast a shield when one of Deuce’s shots missed his opponent. The magic burst like a firework the moment it collided against her barrier. The students around her backed away a few steps, clearing out of the danger zone.

“YーYou’re better than I thought....” One of the seniors mumbled out when he saw how strong the magic burst out. 

The other one clicked his tongue. “WーWe’ll let you off this time cuz the pasta’s gettin’ cold!” 

The two of them scampered off, disappearing into the crowd.

Grim stood proudly on his hind legs, puffing his chest out with a smug look. “Heh! All bark and no bite! Serves them right for messing with us!”

Deuce heaved out a heavy sigh, placing his magical pen back into his pocket. “To think there would be such brutes in a prestigious school like this…”

“ _The pasta’s gettin’ cold_. Laaaame!” Ace mimicked his senior’s famous last words with a mocking tone, smirking widely at their victory. “Did you see how fast they ran off?”

“ _Lameeee_.” Hikari mimicked, standing behind them. The three stiffened from the sound of her voice. 

Starting from the moment they met, she seemed to be the one to be cleaning up their messes. Of course, as the oldest of the four, she has to take responsibility. They seem to attract trouble no matter what. Not as troublesome, annoying and mischievous as the three brats from Halloween Townーbut then again, no one can compare to how bratty those three kids are. 

“Not even five minutes and you guys are already starting a fight! What happens if the Headmaster saw that?” Hikari crossed her arms, glaring at the three.

Ace leaned his face closer. “I don’t want to hear it from you, shortie.” he stuck his tongue out at Hikari who in return did the same. “And besides! It was self-defense! Those jerks were the one who picked a fight with us.” he defended, carrying his and Grim’s meals on the same tray. 

“...But it wouldn’t have happened if Grim didn’t bump into him.” Deuce inadvertently ratted them out.

The brunette gave the two of them the stink eye. 

“Stupid-Deuce!” Ace glared at the blunette.

Grim agreed. “Funyaa! You really need to learn to keep your mouth shut!” 

Deuce was startled by sudden outrage. “Huh? But I was telling the truth…?” 

Poor boy, he was so confused.

The brunette sighed. “Let’s… just eat.” she turned around on her heels, walking back towards their table. 

As soon as they sat down, they began to dig into their lunch.

“Oh~This is so good!” Grim sighed out in delight, giggling to himself. It was a bit difficult for him to eat without opposable thumbs, but the demon-racoon seemed to manage just fine. “The egg is so fluffy and the cheese is so melty~” 

Ace scoffed. “You really are a glutton.” he said behind his gloved hand. 

The brunette sitting across from him gave a pointed look, to which he shrugged off.

Grim ignored Ace’s remark. “By the way, I saw you guys’ dorm a while ago, but what do the other dorms look like?” he asked while munching his meal. 

“You’ve seen the statues of the Great Seven by the Main Street, right?” 

The quartet stopped eating to look at the person who replied to Grim’s question. Ace and Grim almost gagged at the sight of the ginger-haired young man. He definitely didn’t leave a good impression on his juniors. There was also another senior standing beside him, a young man with green-hair and honey-gold eyes.

“This school has seven dorms based on them.” Cater continued with a wink aimed at the girl in the group.

Ace stood up, pointing his finger at his senior accusingly. “You’re the dude from this morning!”

Grim hissed, his fur standing up. “He’s the guy who tricked us into painting the roses!” he and Ace seemed to have something in common in terms of the person they dislike. 

Hikari on the other hand was just observing. She was rather irked at the thought of being used by her senior to do his dirty work, but she decided to just keep quiet.

Cater pouted at them, “I didn’t trick you, you know? It’s not like I wanted to do it either! It’s because of the dorm’s rules.” he defended, giving a sad kicked puppy look. 

“You looked so happy about it though…” Deuce hummed, placing a hand on his chin.

“GAH!” Ace was vocal when he was in discomfort. He quickly scooted away when Cater forced himself to sit beside Deuceーwho also tried to give as much space as possible between them. “ _Yeah._ _Sure._ _Go on ahead_ ーWho told you you can sit with us?!” he spitted out sarcastically before leaning forward to glare at the other ginger.

Cater laughed it off, “Aw c’mon, Ace-chan, Deuce-chan! Don’t be rude! The rules don’t matter outside the dorm!” he winked at them both while throwing his arm around Deuce’s shoulder. “I’m just your super nice and helpful senpai~”

“PーPlease don’t call me that, senpai!” Deuce moved a little bit towards Ace, trying to distance himself from the overly touchy senior.

The green-haired teen chuckled. “That’s just how he expresses his affection.” the brunette scooted over to the right, trying to give the young man some space to sit despite the already cramped between them and the other group beside them. “Oops, my bad. Thank you.” he flashed her a small smile at her generosity.

“No prob.”

Ace stared at the bespectacled teen with a suspicious look. “Uhh… who are you again?”

Deuce slapped the back of his hand on Ace’s arm. “Don’t be rude! That’s our Vice Prefect! Weren’t you paying attention during the welcoming party?!” he reminded the boy with goldfish memory, grumbling under his breath. 

“Tsk!” Ace clicked his tongue and turned his face away.

The young man laughed. “It’s alright! I’m Trey, Trey Clover. I’m a 3rd year student along with Cater.” he introduced, shaking hands with his three juniors and the cat. “You’re the new Prefect of RamshackleーI mean, from that unused dorm, right? Hikari...correct?” he corrected himself.

Hikari shook his correction away. “Pssh! It’s alright. That's what our dorm is named anyway.” she said.

“I hope it changes when the Headmaster fixes it!” Grim huffed before he continued eating his meal.

The brunette laughed dryly. 

Trey smiled. “Anyway, I heard all about it from Cater. Sorry for all the trouble our students caused you.” he said as he glanced over to look at the duo sitting across from him. 

“I’m sorry about mine too.” Hikari said, averting her gaze to look at Grim.

“HーHey!”

“Whaddaya mean by that, minion?!”

Cater propped his chin up, smiling widely. “So, so, you guys were talking about dorms, right? Awesome! A fresh convo! Let us big bros answer your questions.”

Ace huffed as he crossed his arms. “I wanna know about our dorm first. What the heck is with all those rules?!”

The green-haired male cleared his throat. “I’m sure you’re all familiar with the legendary Queen of Hearts, right? In order to establish absolute law and order, the Queen made severe rules to oppress the eccentric citizens of Wonderland.”

“And lucky for you, Hikari-chan, as stated in Rule #186… _One must never eat a hamburger steak on Tuesday!_ ” Cater said and all three plus the cat looked at the half eaten lunch before staring at their senior with wide eyes. They all gasped loudly in pure shock. “It’s a good thing you’re not a Heartslabyul student!”

Ace scrunched his face up in distaste. “Gah! Another pointless rule!” 

“That’s a bit too much, right?” The wielder gave a frown. The Queen of Hearts she knew was a foul-tempered monarch who was very quick to judge at the slightest offense, but there hasn’t been any strange rules decreed by her as far as she knows. She was positive there wasn’t a ‘No eating hamburger steaks on Tuesdays’ kind of rule in any rulebook. “I would be upset if I can’t eat whatever I want....”

“Exactly! Who the heck makes up all those stupid rules?” Ace agreed with Hikari’s word of wisdom, completely disliking the idea of being sorted into such a dorm and with a strict dorm leader at that.

“It’s part of our tradition to adhere to the Queen of Hearts’ rules, Ace-chan!” Cater grinned, winking at the ginger head. “And of course, adhering to the rules is our present Prefect’s passion! The previous one was kinda chill about it though.”

Trey gave Cater a look, “Hey, hey, c’mon now. Riddle just happens to be a lot more serious in his role than the other Prefects. He’s just trying hard to keep the traditions.” he defended, pushing his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. 

Cater laughed as he raised his hands up in surrender.

“Ugh… Sounds annoying!” Grim replied. “If your dorm is like that, then how about the others?”

“Hmm? The next strictest you mean? Well, I don’t know much about other dorms’ personal rules, but I would have to say Pomefiore. Vil spares no effort in beauty and studiesーof course, he wants his students to do the same as well.” Cater answered, tapping his phone on his chin. His expression brightened and he tapped his phone’s screen, unlocking it and then opening an app. “I’m sure you all know, Vil Schoenheit, the famous MagiCamer?” he said as he showed Vil’s latest post.

“Ah! I know him! The girls from my middle school won’t stop talking about him! ” Ace exclaimed.

Deuce blinked a few times, looking at the picture before passing the phone to Hikari and Grim. “I don’t often use MagiCam, but my mother follows him...I think...”

“He just hit five million followers!”

“Five million?!” Hikari spluttered. Her Kingstagram doesn’t even reach a hundred. The beautiful man from the ceremony, Vil Schoenheit, was indeed one of the prettiest men she has ever seen. The aesthetic of the photo, the pose, the make-up and the clothes seemed to boost up his already pretty face. “I… don’t have a MagiCam, so I don’t know.” she returned the phone to the owner.

“Same here.” Grim raised his paw.

Cater gave a look of utter shock. “You don’t have a MagiCam account?!” it was his turn to look so surprised. “Grim-kun, I understand, but you, Hikari-chan? For real?!”

“For real.” Maybe she should make a MagiCam account, for research purposes of course.

“That’s strange. I thought you were the type to be a MagiCamer.” Ace hummed, staring at Hikari’s face intensely. 

“We seemed to be straying off from the main topic here.” Trey chuckled, reminding all of them of the first conversation. The group looked at him sheepishly before he continued, “So… About the rest of the dorms, right? There’s seven in total, Including Heartslabyul. There’s Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde and lastly Diasomnia.”

Grim groaned, scratching his ear. “Those names are so long! I can’t remember all of ‘em!” 

The diamond marked teen laughed. “It’s okay!! You’ll remember it whether you want to or not.” 

“Just like what you’ve witnessed during the Ceremony, the Mirror of Darkness will decide what dorm you’ll be sorted to after looking into your soul.” Trey explained and Hikari wished she stayed during the Ceremony. She just had to pick to explore the school. “I guess you could say that the dorms reflect the students’ characters, but…” his eyes trailed over to look at the brunette.

“That’s right! You’re in Ramshackle!” Ace pointed out the obvious. If he could point that out, then the bet was over and Cater sort of won. The only student who was late to the Ceremony was _her_ . The only student who wasn’t sorted into the dorm was _her_. He can put two and two together and solve the mystery. “What did you do to make your Prefect so pissed he had to kick you out?” he sniggered, the corner of his lips quirking up to an amused smirk.

The two seniors and the Ramshackle residents exchanged looks. 

“Well…” 

Deuce stopped Ace from pestering. “Ace, c’mon, he has his reasons to keep it to himself.”

Cater hid his laugh behind a cough.

Ace backed down. “Fine, fine.”

Trey cleared his throat, redirecting the topic back to square one. “For example, look over there.” he motioned his head to look over to his left. The group turned to look at the student he was referring to. A buff looking student with a scary expression and yet he has fluffy ears and a tail. “Judging from appearance, he’s from Savanaclaw.”

“Totes~ They’re a dorm that has a lot of athletes and dudes good at scuffles. Totally big and buff! Their main colors are yellow and black.” Cater added as he pointed to the band around his upper left arm.

Grim jumped onto Hikari’s shoulder, making himself comfortable as he looked at other students. “Oh! Then how about the one with gray and light purple?”

“Gray and light purple are Octavinelle’s trademark. The one with the dark-red and gold colors are Scarabia’s.” Trey looked over to the direction where Grim was looking at. The Prefect of Octavinelle along with the Prefect of Scarabia and the Vice were set as the example. Trey was sure Hikari had met all three considering how the event during the Ceremony ended. 

“It’s said both dorms are very smart and good at academics. Ah… but Scarabia’s Prefect only so-so when it comes to studying…” Cater sighed softly.

Ace gave a suspicious look as both Deuce and Hikari gave confused ones. “Alright, I sense a red flag over there.” 

Trey crossed his arms, smirking. “You sure caught on quick. Anyway, the bright and sparkling ones over there are from Pomefioreーthe ones with the purple and red band.”

Grim’s eye sparkled, stepping onto Hikari’s head. She complained and grabbed him, setting him down to sit on the table instead. “There’s a really cute girl over there!” he giggled.

Deuce gasped loudly, turning to look at Pomefiore’s table. “What?! There’s another girl?!” 

Ace karate-chopped the blunette’s head lightly. “Idiot! As if they let a girl attend a male dominated school. The ratio is too crazy!”

Spade blinked confusedly. “But wasn’t there a girl in the Ceremony?”

“This school used to be co-ed decades ago, but the Mirror stopped choosing girls to enter the school for some reason.” Ace said smartly. He remembered, of course. About the ladies who attended NRC. There were few, but they made it big after they graduated. “The girl probably transferred to that famous witch academy or somewhere.”

Hikari doesn’t know if she should laugh or feel offended. The fact that Ace and Deuce haven’t figured out she’s a girl even with all the clues mentioned beforeーeven Ace said a few by himselfーmade the prank even more funny. She had to cover Grim’s mouth for him not to burst out laughing at the one brain-cell duo.

Cater had to take a few deep breaths before he could swallow all his laughter. “SーSpeaking of girls… How about I introduce you to Rosalia-chan’s portrait in the West Building? She’s super cute~!”

“No thanks!” Ace quickly denied the offer. “Even if she’s cute, she’s not exactly… you know… 3 dimensional.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Cater smiled. “Then, we have Ignihyde. The ones with the black and blue band. I don’t see them around often because the students there are all sorta private.”

“You mean gloomy?” Grim deadpanned.

“Hey, now, don’t be rude! Though it's true that they’re very quiet and reserved, they have many students who have great magical energy and they’re very techy too.” Trey chided.

“The last one is… Dia...Diasomalia, right?” Deuce stumbled over his own words before finally saying it.

Ace huffed. “Stop acting like such a smartass, man. It’s Diasomnia, got it?”

“I just bit my tongue, alright?!”

“Diasomnia… Ah, over there. The guys who are sitting by the cafeteria’s exclusive table. Their colors are bright green and black. They’re kinda… how do I put it? Super popular?” Cater hummed. Hikari peered over Trey’s body to look at the table at the very far corner. She blinked when she recognized one of the students. The Vice Prefect of Diasomnia. He was the person who offered to help her clean before disappearing when things go downhill. “They’ve got an aura that makes it hard for us commoners to approach and their Prefect is super hard to get…” he sighed out.

Ace squinted his eyes. “Oh, they got a kid over there.”

Trey chuckled into his curled hand. “Grade-skipping is allowed, but that’s not a kid. He’s actually a 3rd year student just like us. He’s also the Vice Prefect of Diasomniaー”

The group yelped when someone popped into their view, floating above them while hanging upside down. Grim jumped into Hikari’s arms as she leaned back a little to avoid bumping her nose with the bat-like student. 

“Lilia. Lilia Vanrouge. Delighted to meet your acquaintance, my dear.” The Vice Prefect said formally, taking Hikari’s hand in his and kissing the back of her hand like a knight. 

“ThーThis guy teleported here!” Grim pointed his paw at the man, screaming at him.

Lilia chuckled as he floated down, standing beside their table. “Pray tell, are thou interested in my age? It is true I might resemble a baby-faced and beautiful boy. However, just like the gentleman with glasses has said, I am not a child.” he smiled.

“Baby-faced…”

The Vice Prefect still has a smile plastered on his cute face. “There’s no need to look from afar, just come and converse with us. Are we all not students from the same school? We at Diasomnia will welcome you with open arms!” he invited, chirping happily.

Hikari glanced over to look at the table Lilia came from. Even from away, she could feel the silver-haired one and the green-haired one glaring at them. 

“Those guys over there don’t seem to be very welcoming…” Deuce said, voicing out Hikari’s thoughts.

Lilia chuckled again. “I apologize for dropping in on your meal without an invitation. Until we meet again.” he gave a bow before disappearing into thin air and back to his table. 

Ace leaned forward, whispering to the group. “Our table is like 20 meters away from theirs and you’re telling me he overheard us?! Freaky!” he got goosebumps just by imagining it. 

Trey fixed his glasses, chuckling nervously. “Well, let’s just say Diasomnia has many peculiar students. Many of their students excel in general magic.” he explained, their voices going back to their normal volume. “Their Prefect, Malleus Draconia is counted as one of the top five wizards in the world.”

Hikari blinked, _Malleus Draconia_. The name sounded so similar to Maleficent, could it be that he was the student she almost bumped into? 

“Honestly, Malleus is super duper dangerous! Like the strongest of the strong. But then again our Prefect is sorta dangerous too.” Cater laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Ace huffed loudly, crossing his arms as he began to vent yet again, “So true! All I did was eat a single piece of tart and he collared me! His narrow-mindedness is super crazy!”

Hikari had thought he would stop ranting, but he just kept on bringing it up.

“Hmmm? I’m super crazy?”

Hikari and the others visibly stiffened when they heard the familiar voice. Ace on the other hand continued his rambles. 

“Duh! He blew past strict and became a tyrant instead!”

Deuce patted his shoulder, “AーAce! Look behind you!”

Ace turned around and jumped up from his seat. “Heh?! Prefect?!”

“Oh! Riddle-kun, you look super duper cute today~” Cater laughed, trying to flirt his way through.

Riddle frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Hmph, you’re pushing it. If you talk too much, it’s going to cost you your head.” he warned.

“Hey now, gimme a break…” The ginger pouted.

Grim’s eyes widened when he recognized the short male. “Fnaaaa! That’s the guy who put a weird collar on me during the ceremony!”

Riddle glanced over to look at Deuce and Hikari. “You’re the group of freshmen who almost got expelled yesterday.” he stated and Hikari gave him an apologetic look for causing so much trouble. She caused so much during the ceremony as well, but at least she helped maintain the situation. “Will you refrain from saying someone else’s unique magic _‘weird’_?” he looked rather displeased.

“Butー!”

Hikari cleared her throat, covering Grim’s mouth before he too got collared. “This guy’s my responsibility. Sorry about Grim, he tends… to speak without any filters.”

Riddle turned to look at the brunette. “For goodness sake, the Headmaster is too soft. If you forgive rule breakers, the system will collapse.” he sighed softly and everyone didn’t reply. “All you have to do is cut off the heads of those who don’t follow the rules.”

Ace leaned towards Deuce, whispering into his ear, “The things coming out from his mouth doesn’t suit him at all.”

Riddle straightened up. “The Headmaster seemed to have forgiven you, but make no mistake… the next time it happens, I will not.” Despite his size, the young man looked intimidating.

“By the way, Prefect… is there anyway you could... I don’t know… remove this collar for me?” Ace gave him a kicked-puppy look, trying to persuade the prefect to remove the collar around his neck.

“I was going to, but then you haven't learned your lesson, now have you? I’ll keep it on for a little longer.” Riddle said and everyone could hear Ace’s gasp of terror. On one hand, Hikari wanted to help Ace out, but on the other, the boy deserved it. In a way, the red-haired boy resembled the Queen of Hearts’ zero tolerance for people who went against her. “Don’t worry, as first years you’ll only be learning the fundamentals, you won’t actually be using magic. You also won’t be able to cause a scene like that, isn’t that wonderful?” he smiled at the collared teen, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Are you serious?” Ace grumbled.

“Now, don’t just sit around and chat. Hurry and finish your meal so you could head to your next class. Laws of the Queen of Hearts #271 _One should eat lunch and leave their seat within 15 minutes._ If you break the rules… you’ll know what happens, right?”

Ace sighed yet again. “Another weird rule…”

“The answer is ‘Yes, Prefect!’”

“Yes, Prefect!” 

“Very good.”

Trey patted Riddle’s shoulder, trying to calm him down. “It’s alright, Riddle. I’ll look after them for you.”

Riddle clicked his tongue. “You’re the vice Prefect, I expect you not to act foolishly.” he took a deep breath and turned to look at the girl. “Before I take my leave, I’m sure you’re aware of the Prefect meeting being held tomorrow, right, Hikari?” he said, reminding the girl of her duties as the new Prefect of Ramshackle.

The wielder gave him a dumbfounded look, glancing to look at Grim before meeting his eyes again. No one told her of any meeting, not even her homeroom teacher or the Headmaster. Neither did Kalim or Jamil remind her when they talked earlier. “Uh… Prefect Meeting?”

“Oh for pete’s sake…” Riddle pinched the bridge of his nose. Everyone around them could already feel the tension building up. They actually felt sorry for the girl who somehow managed to anger the little prefect without exactly knowing what she did wrong. The male furrowed his brows down, his nose scrunching up slightly. “Did no one tell you about it? Not even the Headmaster?” he asked with his left hand under his right elbow.

Hikari stood up from her seat to talk to him. “I guess not…To be honest, I thought the Headmaster wasn’t serious about making me a Prefect, but now I know.” she tried to keep her expression as neutral as possible. She has traveled and met a lot of people. Some of them were easy to anger and displease, so she learned to at least flatter them and not offend them more than she should. “Thank you for reminding me, Riddle-senpai. I’ll make sure to take note of it and attend tomorrow’s meeting.” she gave him a smile. 

Riddle seemed satisfied with her reply as he gave a nod. “Good. The meeting will start ten minutes after the 6th period ends. Come to the 2nd year floor, Class 2-E and I’ll show you the way to the meeting room.” he instructed.

“Yes, sir, Riddle-senpai!” Hikari gave a two-finger salute, mentally trying to remember it and prayed she won’t forget it later. 

The Heartslabyul Prefect gave a proud smile, “Excellent. I’ll be off now.” he turned around on his heels and walked straight to the door, exiting the cafeteria without another glance over his shoulder. 

Hikari stood there, staring at the prefect’s back until he was out of the cafeteria.

The group behind her released the breath they had been holding during her conversation with their prefect. 

“Gaaahhh, that was scary!” Grim exhaled loudly, his ears dropping.

Cater slouched in his seat with a hand over his chest as the other wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Fuuuh! That was a close one! You’re amazing for being able to put his mood at ease, Hikari-chan!” he praised the freshmen. 

“It’s nothing. I’ve dealt with worse.” 

“Nothing?! Bro, I could literally feel the tension pushing down on me!” Ace shouted, slouching in his seat as well.

The wielder hummed.

“It’s amazing how you can butter him up like that.” Ace continued, huffing and propping his chin up on the table. “He seemed to be less strict around you. The perks of being a prefect too, I guess.” he complained.

Deuce gave him a pointed look. “C’mon, Ace, that’s rude. Hikari was very professional talking to Prefect Rosehearts.”

Trey pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, staring at the brunette. “I’m sorry you had to see that side of him.”

“It’s alright…” Hikari trailed off, turning to look at her friends. 

_Drip_

_‘For a moment there… I sensed a strong darkness coming from him.’_


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the late update, but I finally found the motivation to write again!
> 
> *a bit of a warning! This chapter has KH3 and KH Remind spoilers!

“Did… the Prefect leave…?”

“I completely forgot about rule #186! It’s a good thing he didn’t look over this way…”

“Giving us a bit of freedom won’t hurt him, ya’know?”

“I know right? Geez!”

The tense mood within the cafeteria slowly subsided.

“Riddle became the Prefect of Heartslabyul after a week of getting into the school.” Trey explained as he and Hikari went back to sit down. Hikari did manage to get promoted to Prefect on her first day of school, but that was by default. Riddle, on the other hand, did it with his own hard work and dedication. “He speaks rather harshly, but he’s trying to make the dorm better. He doesn’t have bad intentions for all of you.”

“Someone with good intentions doesn't just randomly collar people.” Grim huffed out.

Their two seniors laughed nervously. 

Hikari poked Grim’s cheek, giving him a teasing look. “Now, who was the one that trashed the ceremony?” the cat’s posture stiffened before he looked away, grumbling under his breath. She glanced over to look at Ace, staring at the heart shaped collar. The boy seemed to notice her staring and he was quick to open his mouth.

“What?” Ace snapped, with an irritated look. He thought she would bring the topic of apologizing to the Prefect again. Truth be told, he doesn’t need to be told twice. He was tired of hearing the same thing over and over again by someone he barely knew. “If you’re going to nag me to apologize again I’llー” he squinted his eyes at her, threatening to throw some hands.

“No, no, not this time.” Hikari interrupted. She continued to observe the heart shaped collar and Ace shifted under her gaze. He began to feel flustered to be stared at so intensely. “About Riddle-senpai’s collar thing. There’s a lock there...Is it possible if someone can,  _ I don't know _ , pick it?” She asked curiously.

Trey and Cater stiffened when Hikari suggested lock picking their prefect’s unique collar. “Whoa— whoa— whoa! Hikari-chan, hold up! Are you suggesting you’ll pick the lock yourself?” The ginger-haired teen asked, shock evident in his tone.

“No way! You can pick this thing off?!” Ace stood up, leaning over the table to look at Hikari straight in the eye.

The brunete gave a shrug, moving her hand in a so-so gesture. “Well—”

Trey cleared his throat. “Even if you have the skill… it’s impossible to interfere with Riddle’s unique magic. Believe me, I’ve seen a few people try it.” He fixed his glasses, giving a nervous smile to the brunette. “It’s also best not to test his patience.”

Ace slumped back into his seat, groaning. “Ugh… Don’t get my hopes up now will ya?”

Despite what Trey said, Hikari was still genuinely curious if the keyblade can cancel Riddle’s indestructible collar. After all, the keyblade can be used to lock or unlock any types of locks—including magic locks.

The blue-haired teen sitting beside him gave a puzzled look. “Unique magic… Meaning, it’s only exclusive to the Prefect?” He asked.

“Putting aside all the other magic in the world, magic that can only be used by one person is called ‘Unique Magic’.” Trey explained with a small smile, answering his junior’s question. “I think you’ll learn about it in detail if you pay attention in class.” 

Deuce gave a nod. Their history teacher, Mr.Trein, did mention it in class and it would be a topic they’ll discuss next week. For Hikari, she did read about the chapter beforehand, but up only until the second paragraph before she fell asleep. 

“Riddle’s unique magic is being able to seal off another person’s magic for a period of time. It’s called…” Cater added and stopped for a dramatic feeling. “ _ Off with your head _ !” He mimicked, trying to make it sound similar to the way Riddle says it. He even moved his hand the same way Riddle does.

Grim shrieked. “Even the name sounds so scary!” 

Cater chuckled. “Yup~ Since magicians having their magic sealed off is similar to having your head chopped off—that’s why it’s called  _ ‘off with your head’ _ .” He added the extra detail and Grim’s paws went up to touch his neck. “So, my cute little juniors, as long as you’re in this dorm, it’s better not to go against Riddle.” He wrapped his arm around Deuce’s shoulders, giving a wink to the two Heartslabyul students. 

“What Cater means is… as long as you follow the rules, he can be pretty gentle.” Trey corrected his friend’s word, trying to make it sound more gentle to his juniors.

Ace rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.... I’m going to get chased out if I don’t come back with a tart.” he said sarcastically. He gave Cater the stink eye, still remembering the incident this morning. 

“Pretty much~ That’s what rule #53 says after all.” Cater chirped, saying it in a sing-song voice. He snapped his fingers, adding more weight to Ace’s shoulders. “Since Riddle was looking forward to getting the first slice of that whole tart, he probably won’t forgive you if you don’t bring the same thing.”

Ace glared at the orange-haired senior. “You said you want to get along, but you’re just making it more difficult!”

“This and that are different, Ace-chan~”

Deuce gave a sympathetic look. “Still, isn’t a whole tart a little bit expensive?”

“Ugh, I don’t have that much money though…” Ace slumped his shoulders, sulking.

“Then why not make some? Those tarts were all made by Trey here.” Cater smiled, pointing to his friend.

“I guess making it yourself is cheaper than buying it.” Hikari commented with a hum. She helped a lot around Le Grand Bistrot a lot. She knew it would be cheaper to make one, but it always takes time and effort—and of course the skills. She wanted to help Ace out even if he was acting like a little brat.

“What?! You made all of that, senpai?! Amazing! It’s even better than what they sell in stores!” Ace complimented, staring at the green-haired teen with a look of amazement.

Hikari turned her head. “Ehh, kinda makes me want to steal a tart too.” she joked, laughing and then agreeing with Ace as they both shared a look. Trey and Cater didn't take it as a joke though. She smiled nervously. So tarts in the Heartslabyul dorm meant serious business. She cleared her throat, “But that’s an unexpected talent, senpai.” she decided to turn the topic back. 

“Thanks,” Trey laughed. “I think I have most of the tools and ingredients I need, but I won’t simply help you out.” he shot a smirk towards Ace’s way.

Ace frowned. “Don’t tell me, you’re going to ask me to pay you?!”

“There’s no way I’m going to ask for money from a junior, you know?” Trey smiled reassuringly. “The next tart that Riddle wants to eat requires a lot of chestnuts. Would you mind gathering some for me?”

The troublemaker sighed deeply. “Ugh fine… So, how much do you need?”

Trey hummed, a hand on his chin as he calculated. “It’s going to be used for the Unbirthday Party, so about two to three hundred will do.”

Hikari did a double take. “T—That much?!” they all shouted in disbelief at the large amount needed to bake a tart.

The senior just laughed again. “I’ll have you help me with roasting them and then peeling them.” he said to Ace.

Grim gave a deadpan look. “I’m out.”

Deuce nodded his head. “Me too.” he turned to look at the brunette. While he wasn’t exactly on good terms with Ace, he was friends with Ramshackle’s Prefect and wanted her to stay out of his roommate’s problems. “You should too, Hikari.”

“Yep.” Hikari raised her hand, agreeing with Deuce and Grim.

“Traitors!” Ace hissed at them.

Cater gave a pat on Ace’s shoulder as he leaned over behind Deuce. “There, there! Making them together and then eating them together will make it more delicious! It’s the process that counts!”

Trey pressed a finger to his lips. “Keep this a secret from the Prefect, alright? Freshly baked marron tarts are the best for afternoon tea!” he said to his juniors, but it was mostly directed at the brunette who would be meeting with the prefect himself tomorrow. She gave a nod and zipped her lips, locking it and then throwing the invincible key over her shoulder. “The only ones who can eat it as soon as it gets out of the oven are the ones who made it, you know?” he reeled, trying to convince the juniors to help their poor classmate out.

Grim’s ears perked up excitedly at the thought of food. “Hey, get your butts in gear! We’re gonna pick chestnuts till we drop!” he cheered, throwing his fist up in the air.

“Wow, you sure change your mind fast.” Hikari commented to the always hungry racoon-cat. She wasn’t against helping Ace or Trey, besides she also wanted to taste Trey’s pastries. “Where can we find the chestnuts?”

“You can find them by the forest behind the botanical garden. There’s plenty of chestnut trees there, I’m sure you can get plenty.” Trey answered.

“Alright! Let’s meet up in front of the botanical garden after school.” 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

—Botanical Garden, Temperate Zone—

“—Whoa!! Hikari come look at this! There’s tons of fruits here!” Grim excitedly ran around the garden.

Hikari followed the racoon-cat at a slower pace. Right after class ended for the day, the quartet met up in front of the greenhouse. While they share the same homeroom and mandatory lessons, the compulsory classes are up to them to choose. Deuce and Hikari did pick a few classes together and she even found out she has a few with Ace as well, but for the last period they picked different classes. 

It wasn’t hard finding the Botanical Garden, she and Grim had to walk past it each time they wanted to go to the school’s main building. The Botanical Garden was large and it even has plants she never even came across. The quartet split up to look for tools. The Ramshackle duo were looking around the Temperate Zone for some baskets and gloves to pick the chestnuts.

“Grim, you can’t just eat them.” Hikari chided and stopped him from picking a fruit. She picked him up and walked away from the berry tree Grim wanted to pick. “Those berries are ivy berries—it’s poisonous.” she informed.

“Funyaa?!” Grim’s eyes widened in shock and he was glad his minion was paying attention in potion class. 

The brunette sighed, “This is why you should memorize the plants Professor Crewel—!?” 

“Ow!” 

She quickly raised her foot when she felt she stepped on something. She wasn’t able to see what she stepped on because the moment she looked down, whatever it was—it was gone. 

Grim sniggered behind his paw. “Hehe! Maybe you should also pay attention to where you’re going!” he mocked, looking up from Hikari’s arms.

The girl shot him a glare before looking around. “I’m sorry whoever you are!” she apologized, looking left and right to apologize to the person.

There was the sound of leaves rustling, “Tch—you’ve got guts stepping on someone’s tail, you herbivores.” the person growled threateningly. From the bushes, a tall figure came out. The ears on top of his head twitched as he rubbed the back of his neck, a scowl across his face. He peered down and gave a stern look to the brunette. “Be more careful when walking, will you?”

Hikari gave an apologetic look. “Sorry, Leona-senpai.”

Grim tilted his head, “Hey, aren’t you the guy we met yesterday?” he asked. “Nyaha! So, you’re the guy tending to this place?

Leona eyed the furball in Hikari’s arms. “What of it? I went here thinking I can have a peaceful nap, but all I hear is little kids yapping around.” he shook his head in disappointment. Both Hikari and Grim exchanged looks before leaning back when the young man leaned a little too close for comfort. His eyes were calculating and his lips set in a thin line. He  _ sniffed _ . “You…” 

“Funyaaa! We don’t stink, ya’know?!” Grim shouted, clearly offended. 

“Uh… Something wrong?” Hikari stared weirdly at the young man. Of course, she wasn’t too shocked since Riku and Ienzo have a habit of sniffing Darkness. But it wasn’t something she experienced on a daily basis as well. “We take showers, thank you very much.” she pouted, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Sorry.” Leona retreated back, giving space between them. He looked away without saying anything further, making both of the Ramshackle residents look at him in confusion. The young man looked deep in thought with his eyebrows knitted together. After a few seconds of thinking hard, he gave up and exhaled deeply. “Hmph. It’s nothing.” he said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Hikari raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t sound like nothing.” Before she could press further questions, a voice was calling for her senior from a distance.

“Mr. Leona!” Ruggie called as he jogged, closing the distance between them. 

“Great… The noisy ones are all gathered here.” Leona complained, but he didn’t turn and walk away despite being caught by his vice dorm leader. “I can’t even have 5 minutes of peace and quiet.” he grumbled under his breath.

The wielder gave him an odd look.

The hyena blinked when he recognized the girl with Leona. “If it isn’t  _ Prefect _ Hikari and Grim  _ shishishi _ !” he chuckled behind his hand. “It’s funny meeting you here and with Mr. Leona too.”

“Cut the chit-chat, Ruggie. What do you want?” Leona asked, an irritated tone mixing with his regular gruff and lazy one. 

“I knew you’d be here. You got supplementary lessons with Professor Crewel today.” Ruggie reminded, placing a hand on his hip like a mother chiding her child. The older teen clicked his tongue. “You already repeated a year. If things keep going like this, we might end up being classmates next year, y’know?” he teased.

“Yeah, yeah, just shut it. Stop nagging me already.” Leona shoved his hands into his pockets, a scowl across his face.

Ruggie crossed his arms. “I don’t wanna nag you either! Geez, you can do anything you put your mind into, but you just don’t put any effort!” he shook his head, sighing. He turned to look at the brunette and her racoon-cat. He smirked, tutting at the lion. “Try setting a good example to your juniors, Mr.Leona. Isn’t that right, Hikari?”

“Funyaa!” Grim stiffened in Hikari’s arms when Leona turned his head to glare at them.

Hikari gave a thumbs up, smiling. “The faster you finish your classes, the faster you can graduate and get out of school.” If Leona repeated a year then she wondered what their thoughts were when they found out she’s actually 18, but just starting freshman year. Of course, that is,  _ if _ they find out. Not even the Headmaster knew about her real identity, she doubts any of the other staff and students knew either. 

“Good advice!” Ruggie laughed.

“Right, right,” Leon lazily waved his hand. “Let’s go, Ruggie.”

“Aye~”

A thought came into mind. “Ah, Leona-senpai! Wait! I gotta question.” 

“Hah?” Both males stopped in their tracks. “Make it quick.”

“What are you doing, Minion? We’re supposed to be looking for tools! Not asking questions!” Grim whispered loudly, trying to remind the brunette of their real goal.

“It’ll be quick.” Hikari whispered back. She quickly closed the distance between them and started to get to the point. “I wanna ask about Riddle-senpai’s unique magic. Trey-senpai and Cater-senpai already told us what it is, but I wanna know if we can undo it ourselves? They said we can’t, but I wanted others' opinions as well. I figured it’s better to ask a fellow Prefect instead.” she rambled, explaining the question as clearly as she can.

“What? Do you feel bad for that Trappola kid?” Leona asked in amusement, the corner of his lips quirking up in a smirk.

The brunette cleared her throat. “Eh… err...yeah.” 

The lion threw his head back in laughter. “I’m shivering! You’re sending chills down my spine here, kid!” he continued to laugh, clearly finding amusement in Hikari’s kindness.

“What’s wrong with him?” Grim stared at the lion weirdly, whispering to the brunette who just blew out air, pouting. “You broke him…”

Ruggie joined Leona’s laugh. “Shishishi! NRC doesn't work that way.” he began and the brunette turned to look at him. “There’s a lot of troublesome guys here, so kindness will just get you stepped on and taken advantage of. A tip, you need to be tough and take no shi— _I mean_ , stand up for yourself.” he quickly corrected the language he used in front of a lady.

The brunette gave a deadpan look. “Yeah, figures.”

“But of course, I’ll make sure my pack won’t bother you.” Leona said, referring to his dorm students—The Savanaclaw. The smirk of amusement across his face made Hikari think that he was poking fun at her. He did a curtsy, the same smirk still plastered on his face. “You have my word, princess.”

The keyblade wielder rolled her eyes and did a curtsy herself. “Why thank you, _ good sir _ .” she said in a mocking tone, emphasizing a few words. 

Leona wasn’t fazed by his junior’s bad manner. In fact, he was more amused than offended.

“Back to the main question,” Ruggie had a hard time stopping himself from laughing, but he finally managed to contain his laughter. “It’s impossible to interfere with Riddle’s magic. Your friend would just have to beg and suck up to him if he wants it off of his neck.” he said with a shrug.

“Hmm.” Hikari hummed in reply. 

“That or the only possible way is if your magic is way stronger than that pipsqueak. Just try to keep out of trouble and maybe you’ll make it into the 4th year.” Leona said with his arms crossed. The two Savanaclaw students thought it was enough information and they both decided to go on their way to Leona’s supplementary lesson in the next building. He glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t be late for the meeting tomorrow, herbivore, unless you want your neck cut off too.” he smirked, moving his thumb across his neck in a cutting motion. 

“Haha.” Hikari gave a dry laugh, eyeing the Savanaclaw dorm leader’s back with a stink eye. “If he needs Ruggie to come and get him, I think he’ll be the one who will be late tomorrow.” she murmured under her breath.

“You said it.” Grim nodded his head.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

—Kitchen—

“Welcome back! I see you all picked a bunch of chestnuts.” Trey greeted them.

Gathering the chestnuts was easy. Dragging them back to the kitchen however was hard work. 

Hikari leaned back, stretching her sore back. The encounter with Leona and Ruggie was left unsaid—a secret between Grim and Hikari herself. While Grim seemed to forget about what they discussed, Hikari on the other hand just kept it to herself since she doesn’t want to tell Ace she might actually be able to take the collar off yet. After all, the boy needs to learn a lesson.

They wasted no time and began to roast and then peel the chestnuts. Since Ace was the only one who couldn't use magic, he was the only one who had to do it manually. He was complaining left and right, often quarelling with Deuce and Grim. Before Hikari learned magic, she had to do everything manually as well, starting from cleaning, cooking and every other thing. 

When she trained under Merlin and the others, her magic abilities grew and knowledge broadened over the years. 5 years ago, she just knew basic elemental spells to fight off Heartless, but after the Keyblade war was over and everything was at peace, she learned more magic to help with daily activities. 

“You’re pretty good with your control.” Trey complimented as he finished another bowl of chestnut paste.

Hikari laughed. “Well, I had training beforehand.” she admitted truthfully, finishing her share of chestnuts. She handed the basket to Trey who was ready to make another batch of the paste. 

“Is that so?”

“Hikari, Hikari, look!” Grim jumped to show the brunette his peeled chestnut. “Take a look at it and then compare it to Ace’s and Deuce’s! Mine is the cleanest!” he said proudly, puffing his chest out.

“You little furball! Now you’re just showing off!” Ace gritted his teeth before showing Hikari his chestnut as well. “Stare at it all you want, it’s peeled off clean!”

“Take a look yourself!” Deuce joined.

Trey laughed at the sight of the boys being competitive while the girl was just trying her best to pay attention. It was amusing to see his juniors bickering like little children and yet they don’t even know their friend’s true gender and just assumed she’s a guy because of her uniform. 

“Right, right,” Hikari sweatdropped as she took all of them and tossed it into the basket.

Ace gave a dramatic gasp, placing a hand over his heart. “You’re so cold! You didn’t even look!”

“I didn’t have to look cuz I trust all of you and you’re big boys now.” 

“I hear sarcasm in that tone.”

“Now, now, let’s not get into any more food fights.” Trey stopped both Ace and Hikari from tossing chestnuts at each other again. “Now that you guys finally finished peeling the chestnuts, I want you to help me make the base.”

“There’s more?!” the trio shrieked before slumping. “Gah, my arms are already tired from peeling all of those chestnuts…” Ace complained.

“Your hard work will make it tastier.” Trey gave a pat to their shoulder before ushering them to the island with a few mixing bowls. All of the ingredients were already laid out across the island and of course measured to make the juniors jobs a lot easier. “Now I’ll show you how to make the base. We need to mix in butter and sugar into the chestnut paste.” he placed the two ingredients inside and then mixed it with a mixer.

“Then add oyster sauce as the secret ingredient. Not too much, just one full tablespoon.”

Hikari, Ace, and Deuce did triple takes, staring at their senior oddly. “Oyster sauce?!” 

Trey gave a nod, “Yes! The savoriness of the oysters add depth and richness to the taste.” he grabbed a bottle from the island and showed it to his juniors. “I used this specific brand _The_ _Young Oysters with the Walrus_! All famous patisseries used this.”

“Seriously… that’s a pretty salty sauce.” Deuce blinked.

Ace nodded. “I guess it’s not that strange… I often see people put chocolate in curries too. It might be good.”

Hikari knew the Little Chef often experimented with the ingredient to make the meals more delicious, but she was never taught such a salty ingredient was put into a dessert dish before. The Little Chef would be furious if he finds out someone put oyster sauce inside a marron tart.

“Pfft—hahahahaha!” Trey laughed, surprising his juniors yet again. “It’s a lie! Oyster sauce doesn't belong in sweets!”

They were so gullible and cute, he couldn’t resist.

“What the hell?! You said it with a straight face, it’s believable!” Ace huffed out.

“If you took a second to think about it, you’ll be able to figure it out.” Trey’s laughter died down to a chuckle. “Don’t just believe words without being a bit skeptical, okay?”

“This guy… he looks nice, but he’s the type to be good at lying…” Grim deadpanned, crossing his paws. 

“Alright moving on then! Next is the—?!” Trey paused when he realized something was missing. The juniors looked at him, trying to figure out what was wrong. “We seemed to have run out of whipped cream… We don’t have enough to mix it into the base.”

Deuce offered himself to go. “I can go to the school store and buy some. Do they even sell those things?” he said, wondering to himself.

“You can find anything in that store, so it should be fine. While you’re there, can I ask you to buy a few things as well?” Trey turned around to take a piece of paper and write down all the ingredients he needed Deuce to buy. He took out his wallet and gave a few slips of models to the boy. “Here’s the list and money.”

Deuce read over the list. “It’ll be a bit heavy for me to carry it by myself… Hikari, can you come along with me?”

The brunette nodded. “Sure thing.”

“Me too! Me too! Lemme tag along!”

“Nu-uh! You’re staying here and helping us!” Ace grabbed Grim by his ribbon, stopping the cat from following Deuce and Hikari. “Besides, you can’t carry those ingredients. You’re just looking for an excuse to ditch!” he accused. 

“Funyaaa!”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

—Mister S’s Mystery Shop— 

“Pardon us— whoa…. This store is amazing…”

The moment they entered the shop, something was amiss. Hikari felt a strange feeling right off the bat when she stepped her foot inside the shop. There was a bit of pressure, something like dark magic, when Deuce opened the door, but everything was gone the moment she walked inside. The feeling was like everything disappearing and then replaced with nothing. All sense of mysterious and eerie vibes from the store was gone. 

“Huh…” Hikari hummed, looking around the shop with curious eyes. 

“Hey! My little lost demons! How’s it going?” a voice startled the two of them from behind the counter. They simultaneously turn their head to look at the man. “Welcome to Mr. S’s Mystery Shop. What can I do for you today?” the store clerk asked.

The man dressed and looked oddly familiar to someone Hikari faced in battle before. She didn’t stare at him for too long for fear she might get caught. 

“May I interest you in some charms from uncharted islands? The Mummy of an ancient king? Or how about some cursed tarot cards? Everything is IN STOCK!” the man named Sam offered endlessly.

Deuce blinked. “Um...We would just like to buy everything on this list, please.” he gave the note to the clerk.

“Of course, of course! Now what do we have here?” Sam read over the list, mumbling to himself. “What a sweet line-up! I have everything you need! Stay there and I’ll pack ‘em up for you.” he went to the back to get everything they needed.

“Huh… This guy really does have everything… I usually need to go to the supermarket or convenience store to find these things.” Hikari commented, remembering the good old days when she and Tidus used to run to the nearest convenience store whenever they got bored of the cafeteria food. 

“I guess what Trey-senpai said was right…” Deuce gave a nod.

Not a minute later, Sam came back out from the back of the shop, holding two bags full of what they needed. “Thank you for waiting! Here is all you’ve asked for, little demons!” He gave them to Hikari as Deuce was the one with the money. The girl grunted when the extra weight was put in her arms, it was heavier than she thought. “Oh~ you got it, little demon? It is a little heavy, I suppose.” the man hummed, giving the change to the boy as he observed the girl struggling a little.

“I got it…” Hikari huffed out. She really got it.

“If you want, I have a special magic bag that can reduce the real weight of the items! I’ll give you a 30% discount for it!” Sam winked, giving an offer.

“Hey, that sounds like a good bargain—!” Hikari stopped when Deuce cut in, stopping her from making a deal. He took one bag from her and began to usher her out of the shop. “We’re good! Thank you for the offer though.” Deuce said.

Sam gave an OK sign. “Alright! Make sure to come by again, my little cute demons~!” 

The bell on top of the door chimed as they opened and closed it. 

Deuce sighed. “That store is certainly something…”

“But it was a pretty good deal though…” Hikari pouted. The ever so stingy Moogle named Mog from Radiant Garden made her always grab opportunities at discounts bigger than 10%. The Moogle always gave her discounts, but it was always less than 5%, so the prices didn’t actually change. 

“That was just a trick to make you buy more. A classic salesman…” Deuce said, giving all the points and tips should Hikari shop on her own. 

The brunette nodded. “You sure do know a lot, huh…”

Deuce smiled. “I often help my mom during time sales, so I know a thing or two about bargains.” he admitted, his expression soft and gentle at the thought of his own mother.

“Really? I was always anxious whenever my mom leaves me at the cashier to get stuff and I don’t have money to pay off the groceries.” Hikari remembered those days perfectly well. Little her and Sora would often panic whenever their mother left them for a minute to get bread. 

“Ah, I know that feeling!” Deuce agreed, sharing a laugh.

“You must be really close with your mom, huh, Deuce?”

Deuce looked down, a sad expression replaced his fond and happy look. “No… I was— Ugh!” he let out a grunt when someone purposely blocked their path. 

_ Splat _

The bag fell from Deuce’s arms, crushing most of the eggs. 

“T—The eggs!” Deuce cried, kneeling down to check the damage. “Half of the eggs are broken and now it’s all over the bag.” 

“Deuce! Are you alright?” Hikari asked in concern. She was more worried about him than the shopping. “Hey! What’s the big deal!?” 

“You should be the one—oh it’s you guys again.” The delinquent had a smirk across his face, clearly doing all of it on purpose. “You’re one of the idiots that wrecked the egg in my carbonara earlier! I’m still waiting for the apology!” he accused with a finger pointed at Deuce.

Hikari gave him a baffled look. “What sort of stupid accusation is that?!” she helped Deuce up, glaring at the unreasonable seniors. So that's what it was about earlier. She didn’t hear the full story and just knew Grim bumped into the seniors. But to get worked up over an egg on top a spaghetti was stupid. “The road’s this big and you’re telling me you didn’t do it on purpose? Apologize to Deuce right now.” she threatened, frowning at them.

The senior’s friend snorted, sneering at her. “Aren’t you that new Prefect from that outcast dorm? What can you do? Call your ghost friends and scare us?”

“You destroyed half of our egg and insulted my friend!” Deuce furrowed his eyebrows, cracking his knuckles. “Pay for the damage and apologize to my friend and the chickens.” he threatened.

The… chickens?

“What? You’re getting worked up because of some eggs? How childish!” the senior jeered.

Hikari placed the bag down, crossing her arms as she stood back up. “Didn’t you just say you got worked up because of the egg on top of your carbonara?” she fired back.  _ “How childish.” _ she taunted too.

One of the seniors took a step closer, raising his fist. “What did you just say?!”

“These eggs… Instead of becoming chicks, they sacrificed their life to provide us delicious tarts!” Deuce shouted, switching to his delinquent mode. The brunette standing beside him turned her head to look at him questioningly. It’s not about him suddenly switching to a more rough-and-tough-Deuce, but because of the chicks he mentioned. “If you don’t want to pay for the six eggs you broke… then I’ll punch you six times!”

“This guy—!!” The two seniors quickly raised their magical pens.

“Prepare yourselves, you assholes!!” Deuce also charged forward, his fist raised against the seniors’ pens.

Hikari paused for a second before following Deuce’s lead. It was ridiculous to fight over eggs, but the seniors started it first and she didn’t want Deuce to get hurt. While Deuce was going in for punches, Hikari was more on the defensive side. She diverted the senior’s attack and easily flipped him over her shoulder, locking him in place. 

It was an easy win for the two freshmen.

The senior fighting Deuce wiped his chin with the back of his hand. “This guy’s mad! That was more than six punches! Liar!” he backed off instantly. Hikari released her hold on his friend and he immediately scrambled to his side. “Let’s get the hell outta here!” 

“Sorry to all the chickens!” the seniors apologized.

“Apologize 100 times the next time you eat eggs, you dumbasses!” Deuce yelled.

Hikari sighed deeply. “Apologize to Deuce, not the chickens…” she mumbled under her breath at the seniors’ behavior. If this keeps up, the students might end up being villains and delinquents by the time they graduate from NRC. She went over to the boy, placing her hand on his shoulder. “You okay, Deuce?”

The blue-haired teen panted heavily, taking deep breaths to calm himself. He gasped as he suddenly crouched down, holding his head in his arms.

“Deuce?! Are you hurt somewhere?!” Hikari quickly kneeled down as well to check over the teen. She prepared to cast a healing spell on him, but stopped when he grabbed her hand. “Deuce?”

“I...I screwed up… I vowed that I’d definitely be an honors student, but—but—!!” Deuce gritted his teeth, showing his regret and anger. 

“Why… do you want to be an honor student?” Hikari asked carefully.

The teen sighed, raising his chin up a little, but looking elsewhere as he refused to look at his friend. “In middle school… All I ever did was cause trouble. I skipped school a lot and got into fights too… I disrespected my teachers and hung around sketchy upperclassmen too… I even bleached my hair to death.”

Hikari gave a comforting pat on his shoulder as she waited for him to continue.

“I was a terrible person who went as far as bullying those who can’t use magic.” Deuce sighed, his voice slightly muffled from him covering half of his face with his arms. “Then one night, I saw my mother crying as she called my grandma. Was the way I raised him wrong? Would it have been better if he had both parents? She was wrong!”

“Mom never did anything wrong. It was me! Since that day, I decided… I don’t want to see her cry anymore!” Deuce continued and it made Hikari smile. “So when the NRC carriage came to pick me up, mom was so happy! This time I’m going to be an honor student my mom can be proud of!”

“I see.” Hikari smiled proudly as well. NRC might have a lot of prideful and egotistical delinquents, but people like Deuce gave her so much hope. “You’re such a good kid, Deuce. I’m sure your mother is proud of you! You want to change for the better and that’s an amazing step!”

“I guess...” Deuce lightened up, but as soon as he got out of his depressed mood, he was already back in it when he remembered the things he did to his seniors. “But I can’t since I just went all gangster on our seniors…” he sulked.

Hikari placed both her hands on his shoulders, making him look at her. “Deuce, honor students can get mad too. It’s alright if it’s for the right reason.” she encouraged, trying to lift his spirits up. She stood up and offered her hand for him to take. He took it and she pulled him up, a grin across her face. “And believe me, those seniors deserved it.”

Deuce gave a smile. “Really? I’m glad then…”

The keyblade wielder understood Deuce’s feelings well. After she returned to Destiny Islands with Sora that day after defeating the Organization, their mother cried and cried, happy that her children finally returned home. But their mother’s happiness was short lived when they announced they were required to take the Mark of Mastery Exam. She had to let go of them so soon after they returned. 

Hikari could never forget… That day when she had to break the news to her parents that their son had disappeared. They were so… devastated and she couldn’t bear to face them again and vowed to return after she found her brother. It only broke her mother’s heart more.

And finally, after everything was settled and peaceful—with Sora back home— her mother was against her continuing her career as a wielder. She wished her daughter would be like Sora—who despite working in a whole different world—still chose a more safer profession. 

_ ‘I wish mom would stop worrying…’  _ Hikari sighed softly. _ ‘I should give her a call…’ _

“...may those baby chicks rest in peace.”

Huh?

Hikari did a double take, turning to look at Deuce. She finally understood what he was talking about earlier. “Deuce… These eggs are unfertilized so they’re not turning into chicks…”

Deuce blinked once. Twice.

“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“Oh! You’re finally back! Took you guys long enough!” Ace greeted the duo. He paused, blinking confusedly at Deuce’s sullen state. He raised an eyebrow and pointed his finger at Deuce while looking at Hikari. “What happened to him?”

Deuce wailed, covering his face with his hands to hide his shame. “All this time—!! I… I thought the chicks—!!”

Hikari gave a pat. “Let it go, Deuce… Let it go…”

The three who worked all this time in the kitchen exchanged confused looks, hoping to get a highlight of what happened on Deuce and Hikari’s trip to Sam’s shop.


End file.
